Related papers: The Hidden Wheel-Within
Cooperative transport is a striking phenomenon where multiple agents join forces to transit a payload too heavy for the individual. While social animals such as ants are routinely observed to coordinate transport at scale, reproducing the…
Granular intrusions, such as dynamic impact or wheel locomotion, are complex multiphase phenomena where the grains exhibit solid-like and fluid-like characteristics together with an ejected gas-like phase. Despite decades of modeling…
Self-Modeling is the process by which an agent, such as an animal or machine, learns to create a predictive model of its own dynamics. Once captured, this self-model can then allow the agent to plan and evaluate various potential behaviors…
The physics of walking is explored, using a toy as a concrete example and a 'toy' model applied to it. Besides the Newton's second law, the problem is also discussed from the thermodynamical perspective. Once the steady state (constant…
The gaits of undulating animals arise from a complex interaction of their central nervous system, muscle, connective tissue, bone, and environment. As a simplifying assumption, many previous studies have often assumed that sufficient…
This paper introduces novel air actuated spherical robot called "RollRoller". The RollRoller robot consists of two essential parts: tubes covered with a shell as a frame and mechanical controlling parts to correspond movements. The…
Several robot manipulation tasks are extremely sensitive to variations of the physical properties of the manipulated objects. One such task is manipulating objects by using gravity or arm accelerations, increasing the importance of mass,…
In this paper, a solution to Zeno's paradox of motion was offered and a possible, based on observations and empirical viewpoint, interpretation. A gedanken experiment was proposed in accordance to our empirical and experimental paradigm,…
The motion of flexible fibers through structured fluidic environments is ubiquitous in nature and industrial applications. Most often, their dynamics results from the complex interplay between internal elastic stresses, contact forces and…
Designing soft robots poses considerable challenges: automated design approaches may be particularly appealing in this field, as they promise to optimize complex multi-material machines with very little or no human intervention.…
Quantum spin-Hall effect, a manifestation of topological properties that govern the behavior of surface states, was studied intensively in condensed matter physics resulting in the discovery of topological insulators. The quantum spin-Hall…
Traditionally, robots are regarded as universal motion generation machines. They are designed mainly by kinematics considerations while the desired dynamics is imposed by strong actuators and high-rate control loops. As an alternative, one…
Robots and artificial machines have been captivating the public for centuries, depicted first as threats to humanity, then as subordinates and helpers. In the last decade, the booming exposure of humans to robots has fostered an increasing…
One common feature of a vehicle, an ant and a kinesin motor is that they all convert chemical energy, derived from fuel or food, into mechanical energy required for their forward movement; such objects have been modelled in recent years as…
Human motor activities are known to exhibit scale-free long-term correlated fluctuations over a wide range of timescales, from few to thousands of seconds. The fundamental processes originating such fractal-like behavior are not yet…
Nature's many varied complex systems (including galaxies, stars, planets, life, and society) are islands of order within the increasingly disordered universe. All organized systems are subject to physical, biological or cultural evolution,…
The steering control of an autonomous unicycle is considered. The underlying dynamical model of a single rolling wheel is discussed regarding the steady state motions and their stability. The unicycle model is introduced as the simplest…
Biological systems perform an astonishing array of dynamical processes -- including development and repair, regulation, behavior and motor control, sensing and signaling, and adaptation, among others. Powered by the transduction of stored…
Rubber friction is of major practical importance in applications such as tires, rubber seals, and footwear. This review article focuses on the theory and experimental studies of rubber friction on substrates with random roughness. We…
The problem of a disc or cylinder initially rolling with slipping on a surface and subsequently transitioning to rolling without slipping is often cited in textbooks. The following experiment serves to clearly demonstrate the transition…