Animal Motion and Robots

Please note this is the FOURTH Saturday of the month

Talk Overview:

A common observation among legged animals is that they move their limbs differently as they change their speed. Typically, the observed distinct patterns of movement of the limbs are referred to as gaits. Experiments with humans and mammals have shown that switching between different gaits as locomotion speed changes, enables energetically more economical locomotion. However, it still remains unclear why animals with very distinct morphologies exhibit similar gaits, where these gaits come from, and how they are related. In the first part of this talk, Dr. Gan will talk about how to use simple models to reproduce these gaits through breaking the symmetries of leg motions. And in the second part of this talk, Dr. Gan will give a demo of a quadrupedal robot called A1. He will present how biomimicry can be used to design controllers and allow legged robots to travel in different gaits.

Biography:

Dr. Gan is the director of the Dynamic Locomotion and Robotics Lab at Syracuse University. Dr. Gan has ten years of research experience in modeling, designing, and controlling robotic devices. His general research interests lie at the intersection of robotics and nonlinear dynamics. He studies systems with interesting dynamical behavior and applying the resulting knowledge to robotic systems such as legged robots and robotic exoskeletons. Dr. Gan received his PhD and Masters’ degrees from University of Michigan in 2018 and 2014. And he is also the leader of the Form & Function group in the Bioinspired Institute and an active member of the Autonomous Systems Policy Institute.

Next TACNY Junior Café Scientifique:

“Measurement and Math Behind Sewing;” Saturday, May 20th