Scuttle...

In this project, co-led with the talented PhD student Jianfeng Lin, we characterized Scuttle, a novel multi-segmented, multi-C-legged robotic platform, by studying its dynamics on flat, granular, and rugged terrains through robophysical experiments together with RFT- and geometric-mechanics-based modeling, and developing several open-loop controllers. In the resulting journal manuscript (in preparation), we demonstrate that synchronizing clock-driven C-leg rotational dynamics with coordinated horizontal and vertical body waves enables roughly fourfold speed increases over our baseline control scheme and robust locomotion on terrains where the robot previously could not move.