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In this work, we propose a learning approach for 3D dynamic bipedal walking when footsteps are constrained to stepping stones. While recent work has shown progress on this problem, real-world demonstrations have been limited to relatively…
Evolution sculpts both the body plans and nervous systems of agents together over time. In contrast, in AI and robotics, a robot's body plan is usually designed by hand, and control policies are then optimized for that fixed design. The…
Navigating rugged terrain and steep slopes is a challenge for mobile robots. Conventional legged and wheeled systems struggle with these environments due to limited traction and stability. Northeastern University's COBRA (Crater Observing…
Bipedal locomotion is a phenomenon that still eludes a fundamental and concise mathematical understanding. Conceptual models that capture some relevant aspects of the process exist but their full explanatory power is not yet exhausted. In…
Many microorganisms swim by performing larger non-reciprocal shape deformations that are initiated locally by molecular motors. However, it remains unclear how decentralized shape control determines the movement of the entire organism.…
In nature, limbless locomotion is adopted by a wide range of organisms at various length scales. Interestingly, undulatory, crawling and inching/looping gait constitutes a fundamental class of limbless locomotion and is often observed in…
Humans and other animals coactivate agonist and antagonist muscles in many motor actions. Increases in muscle coactivation are thought to leverage viscoelastic properties of skeletal muscles to provide resistance against limb motion.…
While undulatory swimming of elongate limbless robots has been extensively studied in open hydrodynamic environments, less research has been focused on limbless locomotion in complex, cluttered aquatic environments. Motivated by the concept…
Stick insect stepping patterns have been studied for insights about locomotor rhythm generation and control, because the underlying neural system is relatively accessible experimentally and produces a variety of rhythmic outputs. Harnessing…
Legged locomotion is commonly studied and expressed as a discrete set of gait patterns, like walk, trot, gallop, which are usually treated as given and pre-programmed in legged robots for efficient locomotion at different speeds. However,…
Bipedal walking is one of the most important hallmarks of human that robots have been trying to mimic for many decades. Although previous control methodologies have achieved robot walking on some terrains, there is a need for a framework…
Achieving versatile and explosive motion with robustness against dynamic uncertainties is a challenging task. Introducing parallel compliance in quadrupedal design is deemed to enhance locomotion performance, which, however, makes the…
Active polymers possess numerous unique properties that are quite different from those observed in the system of small active molecule due to the intricate interplay between their activity and topological constraints. This study focuses on…
An originally chaotic system can be controlled into various periodic dynamics. When it is implemented into a legged robot's locomotion control as a central pattern generator (CPG), sophisticated gait patterns arise so that the robot can…
Adapting upper-limb impedance (i.e., stiffness, damping, inertia) is essential for humans interacting with dynamic environments for executing grasping or manipulation tasks. On the other hand, control methods designed for state-of-the-art…
Reproducing the diverse and agile locomotion skills of animals has been a longstanding challenge in robotics. While manually-designed controllers have been able to emulate many complex behaviors, building such controllers involves a…
In this work, the control of snake robot locomotion via economic model predictive control (MPC) is studied. Only very few examples of applications of MPC to snake robots exist and rigorous proofs for recursive feasibility and convergence…
During the steady gait, humans stabilize their head around the vertical orientation. While there are sensori-cognitive explanations for this phenomenon, its mechanical e fect on the body dynamics remains un-explored. In this study, we take…
Undulatory locomotion is a means of self-propulsion that relies on the generation and propagation of waves along a body. As a mode of locomotion it is primitive and relatively simple, yet can be remarkably robust. No wonder then, that it is…
In legged locomotion, the relationship between different gait behaviors and energy consumption must consider the full-body dynamics and the robot control as a whole, which cannot be captured by simple models. This work studies the robot…