Publications associées à Flexural-tensegrity snapping tails for bio-inspired propulsion in fluids

Investigating the roles of reflexes and central pattern generators in the control and modulation of human locomotion using a physiologically plausible neuromechanical model

Auke Ijspeert, Andrea Di Russo, Stéphane Armand, Dimitar Yuriev Stanev, Anushree Bapusaheb Sabnis

Objective. Studying the neural components regulating movement in human locomotion is obstructed by the inability to perform invasive experimental recording in the human neural circuits. Neuromechanical simulations can provide insights by modeling the locom ...

Iop Publishing Ltd2023

Design of an intake and a thruster for an atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion system

Thomas Binderup Jensen, Francesco Romano

Challenging space missions include those at very low altitudes, where the atmosphere is the source of aerodynamic drag on the spacecraft, that finally defines the mission's lifetime, unless a way to compensate for it is provided. This environment is named ...

2022

Robotic Elytra: Insect-Inspired Protective Wings for Resilient and Multi-Modal Drones

Dario Floreano, Charalampos Vourtsis, William John Stewart

Winged drones that fly in close proximity to obstacles or that are capable of aerial and terrestrial locomotion can benefit from protective systems that prevent damage to delicate aerial structures. Existing protective solutions focus on multi-copter drone ...

2021

Design and development of the efficient anguilliform swimming robot- MAR

Auke Ijspeert, Peter Eckert, Anouk Looijestijn

Propulsion of swimming robots at the surface and underwater is largely dominated by rotary propellers due to high thrust, but at the cost of low efficiency. Due to their inherently high speed turning motion, sharp propeller blades and generated noise, they ...

2020

Amphibious and Sprawling Locomotion: From Biology to Robotics and Back

Auke Ijspeert

A milestone in vertebrate evolution, the transition from water to land, owes its success to the development of a sprawling body plan that enabled an amphibious lifestyle. The body, originally adapted for swimming, evolved to benefit from limbs that enhance ...

2020

RoboScallop: A Bivalve Inspired Swimming Robot

Jamie Paik, Matthew Aaron Robertson

Underwater swimming robots permit remote access to over 70% of the Earth's surface that is covered in water for a variety of scientific, environmental, tactical, or industrial purposes. Many practical applications for robots in this setting include sensing ...

IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC2019

Pre-impact detection algorithm to identify lack of balance due to tripping-like perturbations

Silvestro Micera

This study investigates the performance of an updated version of our pre-impact detection algorithm while parsing out hip kinematics in order to identify unexpected tripping-like perturbations during walking. This approach grounds on the hypothesis that du ...

IEEE2019

Effects of repeated waist-pull perturbations on gait stability in subjects with cerebellar ataxia

Silvestro Micera

Background: Damage to the cerebellum can affect neural structures involved in locomotion, causing gait and balance disorders. However, the integrity of cerebellum does not seem to be critical in managing sudden and unexpected environmental changes such as ...

BioMed Central2019

Design Methodology for Engineering Multifunctional Mesoscale Robots

Zhenishbek Zhakypov

In this thesis our research goal is to develop, study and demonstrate multifunctional multi-robot systems in mesoscale. Particularly, our goal is to study and demonstrate terrestrial multi-locomotion and collective behaviours with mesoscale robots, similar ...

EPFL2019

Designing Minimal and Scalable Insect-Inspired Multi-Locomotion Millirobots

Jamie Paik, Zhenishbek Zhakypov, Kazuaki Mori

In ant colonies, collectivity enables division of labour and resources with great scalability. Beyond their intricate social behaviours, individuals of the genus Odontomachus, also known as trap-jaw ants, have developed remarkable multi-locomotion mechanis ...

2019

Evaluation of time-frequency features as detectors of lack of balance due to tripping-like perturbations

Silvestro Micera

Unbalancing events during gait can end up in falls and, thus, injury. Detecting events that could bring to fall and consequently activating fall prevention systems before the impact may help to mitigate related injuries. However, there is uncertainty about ...

IEEE2019

Control of Bio-Inspired Sprawling Posture Quadruped Robots with an Actuated Spine

Tomislav Horvat

Sprawling posture robots are characterized by upper limb segments protruding horizontally from the body, resulting in lower body height and wider support on the ground. Combined with an actuated segmented spine and tail, such morphology resembles that of s ...

EPFL2018

Soft Biomimetic Fish Robot Made of Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

Dario Floreano, Herbert Shea, Jun Shintake, Vito Cacucciolo

This article presents the design, fabrication, and characterization of a soft biomimetic robotic fish based on dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) that swims by body and/or caudal fin (BCF) propulsion. BCF is a promising locomotion mechanism that potenti ...

2018

A multi-modal hovering and terrestrial robot with adaptive morphology

Dario Floreano, Stefano Mintchev

Most current drones are designed with a static morphology aimed at exploiting a single locomotion mode. This results in limited versatility and adaptability to multi-domain environments, such as those encountered in rescue missions, agriculture and inspect ...

2018

Locomotion Dynamics for Bio-inspired Robots with Soft Appendages: Application to Flapping Flight and Passive Swimming

Mathieu Porez, Yannick Morel

In animal locomotion, either in fish or flying insects, the use of flexible terminal organs or appendages greatly improves the performance of locomotion (thrust and lift). In this article, we propose a general unified framework for modeling and simulating ...

Springer2017

Rich and Robust Bio-Inspired Locomotion Control for Humanoid Robots

Nicolas Benoît Dominique Van der Noot

Bipedal locomotion is a challenging task in the sense that it requires to maintain dynamic balance while steering the gait in potentially complex environments. Yet, humans usually manage to move without any apparent difficulty, even on rough terrains. This ...

EPFL2017

A Simple Body-limb Coordination Model that Mimics Primitive Tetrapod Walking

Auke Ijspeert, Shura Suzuki

The coordination of body and limbs motions contributes to effective propulsion in limed locomotion. However, there is lack of understanding that characterizes the mechanism underlying the body-limb coordination. The aim of this study involves clarifying th ...

IEEE2017

Shoaling with fish: using miniature robotic agents to close the interaction loop with groups of zebrafish Danio rerio

Frank Bonnet

Robotic animals are nowadays developed for various types of research, such as bio-inspired robotics, biomimetics and animal behavior studies. The miniaturization of technologies and the increase in performance of embedded systems allowed engineers to devel ...

EPFL2017

Adaptive Morphology: A Design Principle for Multimodal and Multifunctional Robots

Dario Floreano, Stefano Mintchev

Morphology plays an important role in behavioral and locomotion strategies of living and artificial systems. There is biological evidence that adaptive morphological changes can not only extend dynamic performances by reducing tradeoffs during locomotion b ...

Ieee-Inst Electrical Electronics Engineers Inc2016

Performance analysis of jump-gliding locomotion for miniature robotics

Jean-Christophe Zufferey, Dario Floreano, Mirko Kovac

Recent work suggests that jumping locomotion in combination with a gliding phase can be used as an effective mobility principle in robotics. Compared to pure jumping without a gliding phase, the potential benefits of hybrid jump-gliding locomotion includes ...

Iop Publishing Ltd2015