Thursday May 17, 2018, 4:00 p.m., Thwing Center, Room 201

Speaker: Professor Shai Revzen, University of Michigan, Department of EECS

Please join us for beer and snacks on the patio outside the Jolly Scholar from 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Abstract: Legged locomotion is a feature of many terrestrial animals. Despite the pervasiveness of multilegged animals moving over both natural and man-made substrate, we know so litte about such propulsion that multilegged robots perform far more poorly than their natural counterparts. In this talk I will present the perspective that tools from oscillator theory and geometric mechanics can help us get at some essential features of the dynamics of legged locomotion. These allow us to begin addressing the questions in a data driven form. We employ model structures obtained from new mathematically rigorous derivations arguing directly from physical first principles, and show that surprisingly good predictions can result. The talk will have strongly mathematical themes, show results from both animals and robots, and be accessible to a broad range of scientists and engineers.