This study probes the underlying locomotion principles of earliest organisms that could both swim and walk. We hypothesize that properly coordinated leg and body movements could have provided a substantial benefit toward locomotion on complex media, such as early crawling on sand. In this extended abstract, we summarize some of our recent advances in integrating biology, physics and robotics to...

This paper presents an interactive hierarchical motion control system dedicated to the animation of human figure locomotion in virtual environments. As observed in gait experiments, controlling the trajectories of the feet during gait is a precise end-point control task. Inverse kinematics with optimal approaches are used to control the complex relationships between the motion of the body and t...

During human and animal locomotion, the dynamics of the body can be represented with the help of simplified biomechanical models, such as the spring-mass model (often described as spring-loaded inverted pendulum, SLIP model). In this model, it is assumed that the force generated by each limb resembles that of a linear spring. Furthermore, it is assumed that force generated by the leg mainly act...

Often, humans and other animals move in a manner that minimizes energy costs. It is more economical to walk at slow speeds, and to run at fast speeds. Here, we asked whether humans select a gait that minimizes neuromuscular effort under novel and unfamiliar conditions, by imposing interlimb asymmetry during split-belt treadmill locomotion. The walk-run transition speed changed markedly across d...

Water striders (Gerris argentatus) move across the water surface by taking advantage of tension, which supports their bodyweight without breaking. During locomotion, midlegs are primarily responsible for generating thrust, whereas other legs support body. Although aspects standing and locomotion on well understood, relatively fewer studies concerned coordinated biomechanical movements legs. In ...

In this paper, we present a new open source dynamic quadruped robot, PADWQ (pronounced pa-dook), which features 12 torque controlled quasi direct drive joints with high control bandwidth, as well onboard depth sensor and GPU-equipped computer that allows for highly locomotion over uncertain terrains. contrast to other robots based on custom actuator machined metal structural parts, the is entir...