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To achieve highly dynamic jumps of legged robots, it is essential to control the rotational dynamics of the robot. In this paper, we aim to improve the jumping performance by proposing a unified model for planning highly dynamic jumps that…
Elongate limbless robots have the potential to locomote through tightly packed spaces for applications such as search-and-rescue and industrial inspections. The capability to effectively and robustly maneuver elongate limbless robots is…
Spring Loaded Inverted Pendulum (SLIP) model has a long history in describing running behavior in animals and humans as well as has been used as a design basis for robots capable of dynamic locomotion. Anchoring the SLIP for lossy physical…
Over the past few decades, biomimetic robotic experiments have significantly advanced our understanding of undulatory swimming. Compared to animal experiments, robotic experiments offer repeatability and controlled parameter variations, but…
In the study of microscopic flows, self-propulsion has been particularly topical in recent years, with the rise of miniature artificial swimmers as a new tool for flow control, low Reynolds number mixing, micromanipulation or even drug…
Study of the locomotion of a centipede (L. forficatus) at the air-water interface reveals that it does not predominantly use its 14 leg pairs to locomote; unlike most swimmers which propagate head-to-tail body bending waves, this species…
A simple nonholonomic dynamics model is developed as a low-order model for generating undulatory swim-like motions, validated through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The rigid-body-dynamics model generates swimming motion by…
Locomotion by shape changes (spermatozoon swimming, snake slithering, bird flapping) or gas expulsion (rocket firing) is assumed to require environmental interaction, due to conservation of momentum. As first noted in (Wisdom, 2003) and…
In biological tissues, it is now well-understood that mechanical cues are a powerful mechanism for pattern regulation. While much work has focused on interactions between cells and external substrates, recent experiments suggest that cell…
By synergistically combining modeling, simulation and experiments, we show that there exists a regime of self-propulsion in which the inertia in the fluid dynamics can be separated from that of the swimmer. This is demonstrated by the…
We use particle simulations to reveal two distinct propulsion mechanisms for a scallop-like swimmer to locomote itself in granular media by reciprocally flapping its wings. Based on the discrete element method, we examine the kinematics and…
During embryonic development, regeneration and homeostasis, cells have to physically integrate into their target tissues, where they ultimately execute their function. Despite a significant body of research on how mechanical forces instruct…
Inspired by the embodied intelligence of biological creatures like the octopus, the soft robotic arm utilizes its highly flexible structure to perform various tasks in the complex environment. While the classic Cosserat rod theory…
The electro-hydrodynamics near conducting walls is revisited. Attention is focused on the impact of an explicit diffuse Stern layer, which permittivity and viscosity differ from the bulk values, on the velocity of an electro-osmotic plug…
Cilia and flagella are actively bending slender organelles, performing functions such as motility, feeding and embryonic symmetry breaking. We review the mechanics of viscous-dominated microscale flow, including time-reversal symmetry, drag…
Depending on multiple parameters, soft robots can exhibit different modes of locomotion that are difficult to model numerically. As a result, improving their performance is complex, especially in small-scale systems characterized by low…
This study investigates a novel phenomenon of lift generation around a sphere by pneumatically manipulating its surface topology with an asymmetric roughness distribution. A comprehensive series of systematic experiments were conducted for…
This paper combines the fast Zero-Moment-Point (ZMP) approaches that work well in practice with the broader range of capabilities of a Trajectory Optimization formulation, by optimizing over body motion, footholds and Center of Pressure…
Achieving both agile maneuverability and high energy efficiency in aerial robots, particularly in dynamic wind environments, remains challenging. Conventional thruster-powered systems offer agility but suffer from high energy consumption,…
Median fins of fish-like swimmers play a crucial role in linear acceleration and maneuvering processes. However, few research focused on untethered robotic fish experiments. Imitating the behaviour of real tuna, we developed a free-swimming…