Robot Locomotion And Navigation Dynamics (RoboLAND) 

Generating desired movements from undesired environments

Welcome

Animals -- lizards, snakes, insects -- often exhibit novel strategies in effectively interacting with their physical environments and generating desired responses for locomotion. In our lab, we are interested in creating robots that can do the same.

Our approach integrates engineering, physics, and biology to discover the general principles governing the interactions between bio-inspired robots and their locomotion environments. For example, how do legged animals and robots use solid-like and fluid-like responses from soft sand and mud to produce effective movement? How can insect-like and snake-like robots take advantage of obstacle collisions to navigate within cluttered environments? 

We use these principles to create novel sensing and control strategies that can allow robots to perceive and intelligently elicit environment responses to achieve desired motion, even from traditional-considered "undesired" environments such as flowing sand, yielding mud, and cluttered obstacle fields. 

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