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We consider arbitrary-shaped microswimmers of spherical topology and propose a framework for expressing their slip velocity in terms of tangential basis functions defined on the boundary of the swimmer using the Helmholtz decomposition.…
The complex dynamics of animal manoeuvrability in the wild is extremely challenging to study. The cheetah ($\textit{Acinonyx jubatus}$) is a perfect example: despite great interest in its unmatched speed and manoeuvrability, obtaining…
The swimming of a deformable planar slab in a viscous incompressible fluid is studied on the basis of the Navier-Stokes equations. A continuum of plane wave displacements, symmetric on both sides of the slab and characterized by a…
This paper applies the theory of rate-independent systems to model the locomotion of bio-mimetic soft crawlers. We prove the well-posedness of the approach and illustrate how the various strategies adopted by crawlers to achieve locomotion,…
Efficient navigation in swarms often relies on the emergence of decentralized approaches that minimize traversal time or energy. Stigmergy, where agents modify a shared environment that then modifies their behavior, is a classic mechanism…
The problem of biped locomotion at steady speeds is discussed through a Lagrangian formulation developed for velocity-dependent, body driving forces. Human walking on a level surface is analyzed in terms of the data on the resultant…
The article presents a new method of linear programming, called the surface movement method. This method constructs an optimal objective path on the surface of the feasible polytope from the initial boundary point to the point at which the…
Recently, reinforcement learning has become a promising and polular solution for robot legged locomotion. Compared to model-based control, reinforcement learning based controllers can achieve better robustness against uncertainties of…
Exoskeletons have been shown to effectively assist humans during steady locomotion. However, their effects on non-steady locomotion, characterized by nonlinear phase progression within a gait cycle, remain insufficiently explored,…
Legged locomotion is a highly promising but under-researched subfield within the field of soft robotics. The compliant limbs of soft-limbed robots offer numerous benefits, including the ability to regulate impacts, tolerate falls, and…
We present a study of time-independent solutions of the two-dimensional discrete Allen-Cahn equation with cubic and quintic nonlinearity. Three different types of lattices are considered, i.e., square, honeycomb, and triangular lattices.…
The locomotion of flexible membrane-like organisms on top of curved surfaces appears in different contexts and scales. Still, such dynamics have not yet been quantitatively modeled and no realization of such motion in manmade systems has…
Isolated mechanical systems -- e.g., those floating in space, in free-fall, or on a frictionless surface -- are able to achieve net rotation by cyclically changing their shape, even if they have no net angular momentum. Similarly, swimmers…
The deformable and continuum nature of soft robots promises versatility and adaptability. However, control of modular, multi-limbed soft robots for terrestrial locomotion is challenging due to the complex robot structure, actuator mechanics…
Bird migration is an adaptive behavior ultimately aiming at optimizing survival and reproductive success. We propose an optimal switching model to study bird migration, where birds' migration behaviors can be efficiently modeled as…
The modeling and simulation of coupled neuromusculoskeletal-exoskeletal systems play a crucial role in human biomechanical analysis, as well as in the design and control of exoskeletons. However, conventional dynamic simulation frameworks…
Physical reasoning is a core aspect of intelligence in animals and humans. A central question is what model should be used as a basis for reasoning. Existing work considered models ranging from intuitive physics and physical simulators to…
Proteins evolve through complex sequence spaces, with fitness landscapes serving as a conceptual framework that links sequence to function. Fitness landscapes can be smooth, where multiple similarly accessible evolutionary paths are…
Dynamic quadrupedal locomotion over rough terrains reveals remarkable progress over the last few decades. Small-scale quadruped robots are adequately flexible and adaptable to traverse uneven terrains along sagittal direction, such as…
Locomotion on dynamic rigid surface (i.e., rigid surface accelerating in an inertial frame) presents complex challenges for controller design, which are essential for deploying humanoid robots in dynamic real-world environments such as…