Related papers: Elastic energy storage of spring-driven jumping ro…
Legged robot locomotion is hindered by a mismatch between applications where legs can outperform wheels or treads, most of which feature deformable substrates, and existing tools for planning and control, most of which assume flat, rigid…
In this paper, we present an energy-conservation based control architecture for stable dynamic motion in quadruped robots. We model the robot as a Spring-loaded Inverted Pendulum (SLIP), a model well-suited to represent the bouncing motion…
We show dynamic locomotion strategies for wheeled quadrupedal robots, which combine the advantages of both walking and driving. The developed optimization framework tightly integrates the additional degrees of freedom introduced by the…
Electrically-actuated quadrupedal robots possess high mobility on complex terrains, but their motors tend to accumulate heat under high-torque cyclic loads, potentially triggering overheat protection and limiting long-duration tasks. This…
In the Paris subway system, stations represent about one third of the overall energy consumption. Within stations, ventilation is among the top consuming devices; it is operated at maximum airflow all day long, for air quality reasons. In…
Energy management is a fundamental challenge for legged robots in outdoor environments. Endurance directly constrains mission success, while efficient resource use reduces ecological impact. This paper investigates how terrain slope and…
We describe in this paper a crossbridge model in which an attached crossbridge behaves like a linear spring with a variable rest length. We assume in particular that the rest length has a linear force-velocity relation, and that the force…
Arboreal environments challenge current robots but are deftly traversed by many familiar animal locomotors such as squirrels. We present a small, 450 g robot "Pinto" developed for tree-jumping, a behavior seen in squirrels but rarely in…
This work aims to push the limits of agility for bipedal robots by enabling a torque-controlled bipedal robot to perform robust and versatile dynamic jumps in the real world. We present a reinforcement learning framework for training a…
Biological springs can be used in nature for energy conservation and ultra-fast motion. The loading and unloading rates of elastic materials can play an important role in determining how the properties of these springs affect movements. We…
This study proposes a step adaptation framework for running through spring-mass trajectories and deadbeat control gain libraries. It includes four main parts: (1) Automatic spring-mass trajectory library generation; (2) Deadbeat control…
The thermodynamics and dynamics of supercooled liquids correlate with their elasticity. In particular for covalent networks, the jump of specific heat is small and the liquid is {\it strong} near the threshold valence where the network…
To attach and detach permanent magnets with an operation force smaller than their attractive force, Internally-Balanced Magnetic Unit (IB Magnet) has been developed. The unit utilizes a nonlinear spring with an inverse characteristic of…
Legged locomotion shows promise for running in complex, unstructured environments. Designing such legged robots requires considering heterogeneous, multi-domain constraints and variables, from mechanical hardware and geometry choices to…
As wearable electronics become increasingly prevalent, there is a rise in interest and demand for sustainably designed systems that are also energy self-sufficient. The research described in this paper investigated a shoe-worn energy…
Springs are commonly used in wearable robotic devices to provide assistive joint torque without the need for motors and batteries. However, different tasks (such as walking or running) and different users (such as athletes with strong legs…
In this paper, we consider a general task of jumping varying distances and heights for a quadrupedal robot in noisy environments, such as off of uneven terrain and with variable robot dynamics parameters. To accurately jump in such…
Robust and energy-efficient bipedal locomotion in robotics is still a challenging topic. In order to address issues in this field, we can take inspiration from nature, by studying human locomotion. The Spring-Loaded Inverted Pendulum (SLIP)…
Several design parameters in collective robotic systems have been investigated and developed in order to explore the cooperation among the autonomous robotic individuals in a variety of robotic swarms in the presence of different internal…
Performing highly agile dynamic motions, such as jumping or running on uneven stepping stones has remained a challenging problem in legged robot locomotion. This paper presents a framework that combines trajectory optimization and model…