7 accepted papers
Animal locomotion exhibits all the features of complex non linear systems such as multi-stability, critical fluctuation, limit cycle behavior and chaos. Studying these aspects on real robots has been proved difficult and therefore results mostly rely on the use of computer simulation. Simple control…
We discuss challenges a sprawling posture legged robot faces when moving in a complex environment. These kind of robots can be used for search and rescue applications when proper sensors are used and placed correctly. Finding an adequate position for placing sensors on legged robots with a segmented…
Model Predictive Control is becoming more and more present in robotic applications. It has been successfully used in control of humanoid robots to adjust positions of the footsteps in order to satisfy stability constraints. In this paper we show how to adapt such scheme for a quadruped robot utilizi…
More and more biologically inspired robots present spines with multiples degrees of freedom to resemble their biological counterparts. The function of the spine on both animal and robot can play an important role in locomotion. If it has enough degrees of freedom to allow independent control of both
Search and rescue (SAR) missions are being carried out by several types of robots. They include ground, marine and air vehicles depending on the terrain and mission to be tackled. A particular niche for SAR activities are shallow waters. They present high difficultly for conventional ground or marin…
This paper considers a kinematic model that captures the speed and heading angle of a modular snake robot performing side-winding gaits. Modular snake robot locomotion is controlled in joint space. Consequently, the motion is achieved by continuous changes of the robot's body shape. In light of this…
This paper presents the results of a study on the effect of in-series compliance on the locomotion of a simulated 8-DoF Lola-OP™ Modular Snake Robot with added compliant elements. We explore whether there is an optimal stiffness for gait, terrain type, or several gaits and several terrains (i.e. a g…