9602490 Swanson This award supports a 24 month Science and Technology Agency of Japan (STA) Postdoctoral Fellowship for Dr. Peter Swanson at the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory (MEL), Tsukuba, Japan. Dr. Swanson will work with Dr. Tatsuo Arai, Director of the Autonomous Machinery Division, Department of Robotics, on a research project entitled, "Dynamical Robot Walking." The proposed research will explore the use of passive components in dynamic robot walking. Current robot walking strategies are mostly statically stable: the robot could stop at any time without falling over. However, recent advances in dynamics and biology suggest that passive components such as springs and dampers assist in dynamically stable walking without requiring unreasonable control effort or static stability. In the course of the research project at the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory, one of the existing legged robots at the site will be modified with passive components, and a control strategy will be developed to allow dynamical robot walking without static stability constraints. The new dynamical walking behavior will improve the robot's ability to function in an autonomous manner and its ability to interact dynamically with their environment will be improved. ***
