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Eric R. Westervelt received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan , Ann Arbor , in 2003. In August 2003 he joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The Ohio State University as an Assistant Professor. His research interests include the theory and practice of control as applied to mechanical systems with particular application to legged machines, prosthetics, hybrid electric vehicles, and HVAC systems. |
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Carlos Canudas-de-Wit is the CNRS Director of Research in the Department of Automatic Control at the Polytechnic of Grenoble, France. He teaches and conducts research in the area of nonlinear control of mechanical systems, and control through networks. His research topics include: adaptive control, identification, robot control, nonlinear observers, control of systems with friction, AC and CD drives, automotive control, and networked controlled systems. He is a past associate editor for the IEEE-Transaction on Automatic Control and for Automatica. He teaches undergraduate and graduated courses in robot control and nonlinear systems. |
Anthropomorphic fascination and the advantages of biped locomotion in environments with discontinuous support are among the reasons why walking and running biped robots have become a popular area of research. Other important reasons include the potential impact on the development of human assistive devices and as a vehicle for the development of novel design and control methodologies. Research in the field may be roughly divided into several categories based upon the biped's characteristics: two-dimensional bipeds, with motions taking place in only the sagittal plane, versus three-dimensional bipeds, with motions taking place in and out of the sagittal plane; minimalist bipeds, which have a minimal number of degrees of freedom, versus anthropomorphic bipeds, which have a large number of degrees of freedom; and bipeds with passively stable gaits versus bipeds with gaits that are actively controlled. The goal of this special issue is to provide an overview of the current research across the field.
The special issue's scope is the locomotion aspects of walking and running biped robots. The issue will address both the design and control of such mechanisms. We are soliciting papers that will provide a balanced overview of current research in the field with contributions that are representative of the current work taking place across the world. Submissions sought are limited to those that address the locomotion aspects of biped robots. Within this limitation, specific examples include, but are not limited to, a review of biped locomotion research highlighting current challenges, passive robot design and analysis, active robot design, and control strategies for two-dimensional and three-dimensional walking, running, and stumble recovery.