Talk of Prof. David Remy

November 20, 2018

--- Title: Gaits and Natural Dynamics in Robotic Legged Locomotion

Time: November 20, 2018
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Prof. David Remy
Institute for Nonlinear Mechanics
University of Stuttgart, Germany

 

Tuesday 2018-11-20 16:00
IST-Seminar-Room 2.255 - Pfaffenwaldring 9 - Campus Stuttgart-Vaihingen

 

Abstract

 

In my research, I seek to systematically exploit mechanical dynamics to make future robots faster, more efficient, and more agile then today’s kinematically controlled systems. Drawing inspiration from biology and biomechanics, I design and control robots whose motion emerges in great part passively from the interaction of inertia, gravity, and elastic oscillations. Energy is stored and returned periodically in springs and other dynamic elements, and continuous motion is merely initiated and shaped through the active actuator inputs. In this context, I am particularly interested in questions of gait selection. Should a legged robot use different gaits at different desired speeds? If so, what constitutes these gaits, what causes their existence, and how do they relate to gaits observed in biology?

I study these questions in conceptual models, in hardware implementations, and through biomechanical experiments. In the long term, my research will allow the development of systems that reach and even exceed the agility of humans and animals. It will enable us to build autonomous robots that can run as fast as a cheetah and as enduring as a husky, while mastering the same terrain as a mountain goat. And it will provide us with novel designs for prosthetics, orthotics, and active exoskeletons that help restoring the locomotion skills of the disabled and can be used as training and rehabilitation devices for the injured.

 

  

  

   

  

Biographical Information

 

David Remy is a Full Professor at the Institute for Nonlinear Mechanics at the University of Stuttgart in Germany. He received his Ph.D. in 2011 from ETH Zurich (Prof. Roland Siegwart), and holds a M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a Diploma in Engineering Cybernetics from the University of Stuttgart. Prior to his appointment in Stuttgart, Dr. Remy was an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is a member of the German National Academic Foundation and a recipient of the NSF CAREER award. His research interests include the design, simulation, and control of legged robots, exoskeletons, and other nonlinear systems. Drawing inspiration from biology and biomechanics, he is particularly interested in the effects and exploitation of natural dynamic motions, the role of different gaits, and the possibility of force/torque controllable systems; both in conceptual models and in hardware realizations.  

  


 

 
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