Abstract: Robot designers are increasingly searching for ideas from
biology. The talk will introduce such bio-inspired robots that
embody the hypothesized principles from the insights obtained by
animal studies. Through these examples, the intricate processes of
design principle extraction will be discussed. Current research in
the MIT biomimetics lab is centered on the development of a
cheetah-inspired running robot. Three major associated research
thrusts are optimum actuator design, biotensegrity
structure design, and the impluse-based control architecture for
stable galloping control. Each research component is guided
by biomechanics of runners such as dogs and cheetahs capable of
the fast traverse on rough and unstructured terrains.
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