A unifying, data-driven view of locomotion

Abstract:  Much of our innate intuition about moving through the world is shaped by our own experiences as large land bipeds, whose motion is often governed by momentum. Yet we are the anomaly among terrestrial organisms — most things that move terrestrially do so with multiple legs in contact with the ground. Our recent work has shown that such multilegged systems ranging from sub-centimeter scale ants to meter long multilegged robots all move in a “principally kinematic” or “Stokesian” fashion which can be modeled without requiring a momentum state and can be understood without forces and accelerations. Such models are particularly easy to learn in a data-driven form. The talk will discuss results from our PNAS paper published earlier this month on the topic (doi:10.1073/pnas.2113222119), as well as work on experimental verification, modeling, and planning of Stokesian motion.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Joint work with Dan Zhao, Brian Bittner, Glenna Clifton, Nick Gravish; Funding from ARO W911NF-14-1-0573, W911NF-17-1-0243, W911NF-17-1-0306; NSF CMMI 1825918 and the D. Dan and Betty Kahn Michigan-Israel Partnership for Research and Education Autonomous Systems Mega-Project.

Bio:  Shai Revzen is an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the College of Engineering, and holds a courtesy faculty appointment in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts. He received his PhD in Integrative Biology doing research in the PolyPEDAL Lab at the University of California at Berkeley, and did his postdoctoral work in the GRASP Laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to his academic work, Shai was Chief Architect R&D of the convergent systems division of Harmonic Lightwaves (HLIT), co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Acculine Medical, and General Manager of his consulting company, Izun, Inc.

As principal investigator of the Biologically Inspired Robotics and Dynamical Systems (BIRDS) lab, Shai sets the research agenda and innovative tone of the lab. He believes in the intrinsic value of fundamental science, and of its transformative potential for robotics and future technology. Under his supervision, the lab combines work in three disciplines: robotics, mathematics, and biology.

***Event will take place in hybrid format. The location for in-person attendance will be room 1311 EECS.   Attendance will also be possible via Zoom. Zoom link and password will be distributed to the Controls Group e-mail list-serv.

To join this list-serv, please send an (empty) email message to [email protected] with the word “subscribe” in the subject line. To cancel your subscription, send an (empty) email to the same address with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject line.  Zoom information is also available upon request to Michele Feldkamp (careymrz@umich.edu).