Publications by Laura Isabel Paez Coy

Multisensory feedback makes swimming circuits robust against spinal transection and enables terrestrial crawling in elongate fish

Vertebrate locomotion is due to the interplay of neural oscillators and sensory feedback loops in the spinal cord that interact with the body and the environment. Here, we study these circuits with a focus on undulatory locomotion as produced by elongated ...

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences2025

Investigating the effect of morphology on the terrestrial gaits of amphibious fish using a reconfigurable robot

Auke Ijspeert, Laura Isabel Paez Coy

The relationship between morphology and locomotion performance in amphibious fish remains poorly understood, particularly in axial-appendage-based and appendage-based movements. To address this, we introduce Polymander, a reconfigurable robot capable of mi ...

IOP Publishing2025

Symmetry breaking and gait transition induced by hydrodynamic sensory feedback in an anguilliform swimming robot

Auke Ijspeert, Laura Isabel Paez Coy

The goal of this article is to identify and understand the fundamental role of spatial symmetries in the emergence of undulatory swimming using an anguilliform robot. Here, the local torque at the joints of the robot is controlled by a chain of oscillators ...

2024

Identification of the trade-off between speed and efficiency in undulatory swimming using a bio-inspired robot

Auke Ijspeert, Laura Isabel Paez Coy, Kamilo Andres Melo Becerra, Karen Ann J Mulleners, Alexandros Anastasiadis, Eric Daniel Tytell

Anguilliform swimmers, like eels or lampreys, are highly efficient swimmers. Key to understanding their performances is the relationship between the body’s kinematics and resulting swimming speed and efficiency. But, we cannot prescribe kinematics to livin ...

Nature Research2023

Beyond undulation! Body morphology and sensing components of elongated animals and robots reveal skills to maintain competent locomotion

Laura Isabel Paez Coy

Locomotion is an essential evolutive innovation of living beings that allows them to colonize and dominate the planet. As diverse as animal morphologies are (living) and were (extinct), their locomotion modalities are also diverse. In particular, animal mo ...

EPFL2023

Emergence of robust self-organized undulatory swimming based on local hydrodynamic force sensing

Auke Ijspeert, Robin Thandiackal, Laura Isabel Paez Coy, Kamilo Andres Melo Becerra, Kyoichi Akiyama

Undulatory swimming represents an ideal behavior to investigate locomotion control and the role of the underlying central and peripheral components in the spinal cord. Many vertebrate swimmers have central pattern generators and local pressure-sensitive re ...

AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE2021

Performance tradeoffs in anguilliform swimming via viscoelastic modulation

Auke Ijspeert, Laura Isabel Paez Coy, Kamilo Andres Melo Becerra

OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC2021

Kinematic and dynamic analysis of the mosquito larvae gait

Auke Ijspeert, Laura Isabel Paez Coy, Kamilo Andres Melo Becerra, Mahmut Selman Sakar

OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC2020

Understanding Polypterus Senegalus Walking Locomotion from its Center of Mass Displacements

Auke Ijspeert, Laura Isabel Paez Coy, Kamilo Andres Melo Becerra

2019

Undulatory swimming control with local exteroceptive sensory feedback

Auke Ijspeert, Robin Thandiackal, Laura Isabel Paez Coy, Kamilo Andres Melo Becerra

OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC2019

Adaptive Compliant Foot Design for Salamander Robots

Auke Ijspeert, Robin Thandiackal, Laura Isabel Paez Coy, Kamilo Andres Melo Becerra

Aquatic stepping gaits in animals arguably display higher speed performance as well as energetic efficiency compared to other gaits using the limbs (i.e walking). This suggest that the foot structure and function contributes at a great extent on the propul ...

IEEE2019

Undulatory Swimming Locomotion Driven by CPG with Multimodal Local Sensory Feedback

Auke Ijspeert, Jonathan Patrick Arreguit O'Neill, Laura Isabel Paez Coy, Kamilo Andres Melo Becerra, Kyoichi Akiyama

Many species such as eels, lampreys and leeches generate undulatory swimming locomotion adaptively. It is said that this coordinated locomotive patterns are produced by central pattern generators (CPGs) which generate rhythmic activities without any rhythm ...

SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG2018

Design and Analysis of a Soft Pneumatic Actuator with Origami Shell Reinforcement

Jamie Paik, Laura Isabel Paez Coy, Gunjan Agarwal

Soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs) are versatile robotic components enabling diverse and complex soft robot hardware design. However, due to inherent material characteristics exhibited by their primary constitutive material, silicone rubber, they often lack r ...

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc2016