We propose a locomotion technique for a legged robot that is high-centered, i.e., a robot stuck on a block with its legs dangling in air. By using its legs as reaction masses, the robot might be able to rock and roll on its stomach and incrementally move forward off the block, a form of legless locomotion using halteres. With locomotion of high-centered robots using body attitude oscillations a...

A novel X-ray technique shows that the internal organs of crawling caterpillars slide past the body walls like pistons in a new kind of legged locomotion.

The problem of safe locomotion of legged and wheeled robots, when trying to avoid falling, tipping over or hitting obstacles, appears to be a problem of viability and not of Lyapunov stability. Theoretically speaking, viability and Model Predictive Control are unquestionably related, but both can quickly lead to untractable numerical problems. We present here a promising approach for the proble...

Contact-based decision and planning methods are increasingly being sought for task execution in humanoid robots. Formal methods for verification and synthesis have not been yet incorporated into the motion planning sequence to generate complex mobility behaviors in legged humanoid robots. This study takes a step toward formally synthesizing a high-level reactive task planner for unified legged ...

Recent developments in dynamic legged locomotion have focused on encoding a substantial component of leg intelligence into passive compliant mechanisms. One of the limitations of this approach is reduced adaptability: the final leg mechanism usually performs optimally for a small range of conditions (i.e. a certain robot weight, terrain, speed, gait, and so forth). For many situations in which ...

Biological systems can provide useful insights into principles of design and control of locomotion that can be applied to legged robots. In this paper we review our work on cockroaches using finite element analysis to model how loads are sensed and regulated in walking and climbing. A number of biological studies have shown that sensors that detect forces in the legs of insects are of particula...

1 Motivation Both legged and limbless animals often exhibit various types of locomotion by adapting to the current circumstances encountered in real time. This ability has been honed by evolutionary selection pressure, and there likely exists an ingenious mechanism that underlies any type of locomotion. Clarifying this mechanism will lead us to elucidate the fundamental principle of animal loco...

Motivation: Although animals and humans navigate complex terrain in their everyday lives, the biomechanical and energetic effects on legged locomotion from uneven terrain have scarcely been quantified [1]. Most gait research has examined locomotion on smooth, level surfaces. Identifying key gait parameters that permit agile locomotion across uneven surfaces could lead to clearer understanding o...

We propose in this letter a motion planning method for legged robot locomotion based on Geometric Heat Flow framework. The task is challenging due to the hybrid nature of dynamics and contact constraints. encode constraints into Riemannian inner product, product defined so that short curves correspond admissible motions system. rely affine geometric heat flow deform an arbitrary path connecting...