Complex Systems Seminar | A Simple Model for a Complex System: Legged Locomotion as an Oscillator

VIRTUAL SEMINAR LINK: myumi.ch/v2ZYv

The neuromechanical control and dynamics of legged locomotion are of great interest for biomedical and robotics applications, as well as being an aspect of functional morphology with large ecological implications. Most biomechanists take a "reductionist" approach that attempts to model animal motion by modeling the parts of the organism and their interconnections, thereby combining them into what are sometimes staggeringly complex models. We will discuss a complementary "essentialist" approach, where multi-legged locomotion is viewed as a limit cycle oscillation comprising the body, nervous system, and environment. Through a combination of theoretical mathematical advances, new numerical algorithms, and experimental work on both animals and robots, this approach has revealed new ways to non-invasively inspect neuromechanical feedback pathways, control and coordinate legs, and model complex multi-contact collisions. Talk will be non-technical and suitable for a broad sciences audience.