Publications related to Boston Dynamics

Soft robotics for farm to fork: applications in agriculture & farming

Josephine Anna Eleanor Hughes, Kai Christian Junge

Agricultural tasks and environments range from harsh field conditions with semi-structured produce or animals, through to post-processing tasks in food-processing environments. From farm to fork, the development and application of soft robotics offers a pl ...

Iop Publishing Ltd2024

A biohybrid interaction framework for the integration of robots in animal societies

Francesco Mondada, Daniel Burnier, Vaios Papaspyros, Raphael Cherfan

The collective behavior of animals has been traditionally studied through observation, quantitative models of behavior, and devices of low intelligence. Nowadays, the advancements in the field of robotics allow for closed-loop experiments that occur in rea ...

2023

Hybrid Quadratic Programming - Pullback Bundle Dynamical Systems Control

Aude Billard, Bernardo Fichera

Dynamical System (DS)-based closed-loop control is a simple and effective way to generate reactive motion policies that well generalize to the robotic workspace, while retaining stability guarantees. Lately the formalism has been expanded in order to handl ...

SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG2023

Puppeteer and Marionette: Learning Anticipatory Quadrupedal Locomotion Based on Interactions of a Central Pattern Generator and Supraspinal Drive

Auke Ijspeert, Guillaume Denis Antoine Bellegarda, Milad Shafiee Ashtiani

Quadruped animal locomotion emerges from the interactions between the spinal central pattern generator (CPG), sensory feedback, and supraspinal drive signals from the brain. Computational models of CPGs have been widely used for investigating the spinal co ...

IEEE2023

Non-contact robotic manipulation of floating objects: exploiting emergent limit cycles

Josephine Anna Eleanor Hughes, Nana Obayashi

The study of non-contact manipulation in water, and the ability to robotically control floating objects has gained recent attention due to wide-ranging potential applications, including the analysis of plastic pollution in the oceans and the optimization o ...

Frontiers Media Sa2023

Powerful 2D Soft Morphing Actuator Propels Giant Manta Ray Robot

Miao Li, Yi Sun

Soft actuator is the main technology that drives the development of soft robotics as it defines the capabilities of soft machines. One of the key challenges in soft actuator research is to simultaneously produce complex morphing (e.g., surface morphing) an ...

WILEY2022

Sprawling Quadruped Robot Driven by Decentralized Control With Cross-Coupled Sensory Feedback Between Legs and Trunk

Auke Ijspeert, Shura Suzuki

Quadruped animals achieve agile and highly adaptive locomotion owing to the coordination between their legs and other body parts, such as the trunk, head, and tail, that is, body-limb coordination. This study aims to understand the sensorimotor control und ...

2021

Wireless Electrohydrodynamic Actuators for Propulsion and Positioning of Miniaturized Floating Robots

Vito Cacucciolo, Yu Kuwajima

Autonomous soft robots require compact actuators generating large strokes and high forces. Electro-fluidic actuators are especially promising, they combine the advantages of electroactive polymers (low-power consumption, fast response, and electrical power ...

WILEY2021

Combining Reflexes and External Sensory Information in a Neuromusculoskeletal Model to Control a Quadruped Robot

Auke Ijspeert, Azhar Aulia Saputra

This article examines the importance of integrating locomotion and cognitive information for achieving dynamic locomotion from a viewpoint combining biology and ecological psychology. We present a mammalian neuromusculoskeletal model from external sensory ...

IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC2022

Force Adaptation in Contact Tasks with Dynamical Systems

Aude Billard, Mahdi Khoramshahi, Walid Amanhoud

In many tasks such as finishing operations, achieving accurate force tracking is essential. However, uncertainties in the robot dynamics and the environment limit the force tracking accuracy. Learning a compensation model for these uncertainties to reduce ...

IEEE2020

A Neural Primitive model with Sensorimotor Coordination for Dynamic Quadruped Locomotion with Malfunction Compensation

Auke Ijspeert, Azhar Aulia Saputra

In the field of quadruped locomotion, dynamic locomotion behavior, and rich integration with sensory feedback represents a significant development. In this paper, we present an efficient neural model, which includes CPG and its sensorimotor coordination, a ...

IEEE2020

Online Gait Transitions and Disturbance Recovery for Legged Robots via the Feasible Impulse Set

Auke Ijspeert, Chiheb Boussema

Gaits in legged robots are often hand tuned and time based, either explicitly or through an internal clock, for instance, in the form of central pattern generators. This strategy requires trial and error to identify leg timings, which may not be suitable i ...

IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC2019

Jumping dynamics of aquatic animals

Emmanuel Georges Albert Virot

Jumping out of water is a phenomenon exhibited by a variety of aquatic and semi-aquatic animals. Yet, there is no common groundwork that clarifies the physical constraints required to jump out of water. In this study, we elucidate the physical conditions r ...

ROYAL SOC2019

Compliance, locomotion and local computation in (self-) reconfigurable modular robots

Simon Lukas Hauser

Animals display an enormous versatility and a remarkable ability to adapt to changes in environment and terrain. Research in bio-inspired robotics strives to transfer these skills to robots, including legged systems. Even though animals seemingly effortles ...

EPFL2019

Decentralized control with cross-coupled sensory feedback between body and limbs in sprawling locomotion

Auke Ijspeert, Shura Suzuki

Quadrupeds achieve rapid and highly adaptive locomotion owing to the coordination between their legs and other body parts such as their trunk, head, and tail, i.e. body-limb coordination. Therefore, a better understanding of the mechanism underlying body-l ...

IOP PUBLISHING LTD2019

Design of a Highly Biomimetic and Fully-Actuated Robotic Finger

Daniel Thalmann

During design a mechanical structure such as a robotic finger, modeling parts and designing joints are two time-consuming steps. This paper presents a method for design and fabrication of a humanoid robotic finger that intends to mimic the human finger in ...

IEEE2019

Neuromuscular model achieving speed control and steering with a 3D bipedal walker

Auke Ijspeert, Renaud Ronsse, Nicolas Benoît Dominique Van der Noot

Nowadays, very few humanoid robots manage to travel in our daily environments. This is mainly due to their limited locomotion capabilities, far from the human ones. Recently, we developed a bio-inspired torque-based controller recruiting virtual muscles dr ...

SPRINGER2019

Towards Agility: Definition, Benchmark and Design Considerations for Small, Quadrupedal Robots

Peter Eckert

Agile quadrupedal locomotion in animals and robots is yet to be fully understood, quantified or achieved. An intuitive notion of agility exists, but neither a concise definition nor a common benchmark can be found. Further, it is unclear, what minimal leve ...

EPFL2018

Compliant universal grippers as adaptive feet in legged robots

Auke Ijspeert, Mehmet Hasan Mutlu, Simon Lukas Hauser

This work investigates the usage of compliant universal grippers as a novel foot design for legged locomotion. The method of jamming of granular media in the universal grippers is characterized by having two distinct states: a soft, fluid-like state which ...

2018

An Overview on Principles for Energy Efficient Robot Locomotion

Salman Faraji

Despite enhancements in the development of robotic systems, the energy economy of today's robots lags far behind that of biological systems. This is in particular critical for untethered legged robot locomotion. To elucidate the current stage of energy eff ...

FRONTIERS MEDIA SA2018