Remarkable similarities in the vertical plane of forward motion exist among diverse legged runners. The effect of differences in posture may be reflected instead in maneuverability occurring in the horizontal plane. The maneuver we selected was turning during rapid running by the cockroach Blaberus discoidalis, a sprawled-postured arthropod. Executing a turn successfully involves at least two r...

1 I n t r o d u c t i o n Large space structures such as antennas or space stations will be very flexible, not only because of the high cost of transportation of structures from earth to space, but also because they will be constructed or deployed in orbit and will not need to withstand large launching and gravity loads. However, when a space structure is very flexible, its active control syste...

Palm sized legged robots show promise for military and civilian applications, including exploration of hazardous or difficult to reach places, search and rescue, espionage, and battlefield reconnaissance. However, they also face many technical obstacles, includingbut not limited toactuator performance, weight constraints, processing power, and power density. This paper presents an overview of s...

A b s t r a c t In this paper, longitudinal and lateral vehicle control for Automated Highway Systems (AHS) are studied together for their coupling effects. It is shown that longitudinal controllers which directly control the wheel slip are inherently more stable, especially during lateral maneuvers on very slippery road conditions, than longitudinal controllers which do not take wheel slip int...

We describe a hierarchy of models for legged locomotion, emphasizing relationships among feedforward (preflexive) stability, maneuverability, and reflexive feedback. We focus on a hexapedal geometry representative of insect locomotion in the ground plane that includes a neural central pattern generator circuit, nonlinear muscles, and a representative proprioceptive sensory pathway. Although the...

The morphological designs of animals represent a balance between stability for efficient locomotion and instability associated with maneuverability. Morphologies that deviate from designs associated with stability are highly maneuverable. Major features affecting maneuverability are positions of control surfaces and flexibility of the body. Within odontocete cetaceans (i.e., toothed whales), va...

In this paper, some results are provided for minimum time roll about velocity vector maneuvering with thrust-vectoring and aerodynamic control in effect. The mathematical model for attitude motions of the aircraft is developed. First order necessary conditions for optimality using Pontryagen principle is applied, and the existence of an extreme family of solutions for the maneuver is shown. Mul...

In this paper, some results are provided for minimum time roll about velocity vector maneuvering with thrust-vectoring and aerodynamic control in effect. The mathematical model for attitude motions of the aircraft is developed. First order necessary conditions for optimality using Pontryagen principle is applied, and the existence of an extreme family of solutions for the maneuver is shown. Mul...

The objective of this work, is performance handling and maneuverability, by means of the observation of vehicle dynamics in order to obtain safer and an easier driving. First and second order sliding mode observers are developed to estimate the vehicle state. Lateral forces are estimated in a last step.