MMAE Seminar - Dr. Hamid Vejdani - Bio-inspired Robotics: The Mechanics of Robot Locomotion through Inspiration from Nature

Armour College of Engineering's Mechanical, Materials & Aerospace Engineering Department will welcome Dr. Hamid Vejdani, a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University, on Monday, March 6th, to present his lecture, Bio-inspired Robotics: The Mechanics of Robot Locomotion through Inspiration from Nature.

Abstract

Incredible biological systems provide a wellspring of inspiration for building and controlling robots. The dynamical properties of animals have been evolved to operate in the unstructured and uncertain environments that we want robots to operate in, efficiently and robustly. This talk will focus on two topics in bio-inspired robotics: dynamics and control of bipedal locomotion and the mechanics of flapping flight systems from animal data to dynamical simulations and the results from robot implementation. I will talk about the dynamical and control insights that we can gain from animal locomotion to discover the underlying principles that enable them to excel at their skillful tasks. The key to building similar competent robots is to understand the full behavior of the dynamical systems and its relationship to the design and role of each component and develop control strategies that use the dynamics of the system instead of ignoring it and fighting with it. By merging dynamics and control of robots -as seen in animals- we can bring more agility and autonomy to robots and will benefit from them more in our daily lives.

Biography

Dr. Hamid Vejdani is currently a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University. His research interests include robotics (intelligent design of mechanical components, behavior design and control design of robots), dynamical modeling, optimal control and nonlinear systems. He earned his PhD (2014) in Robotics and Mechanical Engineering and M.S. (2012) in Mechanical Engineering from Oregon State University and B.S. (2001) and M.S. (2004) in Structural Engineering from Ferdowsi University. He has developed and implemented control strategies for walking and running bipedal robots and currently he is exploring the mechanics of flapping flight systems inspired by maneuverability and agility of bats.