EVENT DETAILS AND ABSTRACT

Title: Energetics of Walking
Speaker: Prof. Andy Ruina
Speaker Info: Cornell
Brief Description:
Special Note: More current information may be available at Plan-it Purple
Abstract:

Although the common approach to both observing and artificially generating terrestrial locomotion of animals and robots is to emphasize control, the approach we consider is to emphasize the mechanics. The over-riding theme is that some aspects of animal motion may be well understood by considering ways to minimize energy use and, similarly, more effective robots may be built if energy use minimization is considered in both the architecture and the actuation. Something to think about before the talk: what muscles do you use to walk at what points in the walking cycle? Why? Additional recent theoretical/simulation results include ideas about how to walk and brachiate (swing from branches) with (in principle) zero energy cost