Describing Robotic Bat Flight with Stable Periodic Orbits

From a dynamic system point of view, bat locomotion stands out among other forms of flight. During a large part of bat wingbeat cycle the moving body is not in a static equilibrium. This is in sharp contrast to what we observe in other simpler forms of flight such as insects, which stay at their static equilibrium. Encouraged by biological examinations that have revealed bats exhibit periodic and stable limit cycles, this work demonstrates that one effective approach to stabilize articulated flying robots with bat morphology is locating feasible limit cycles for these robots; then, designing controllers that retain the closed-loop system trajectories within a bounded neighborhood of the designed periodic orbits. This control design paradigm has been evaluated in practice on a recently developed bio-inspired robot called Bat Bot (B2)

Comprehensive molecular characterization of the hippo signaling pathway in cancer

Hippo signaling has been recognized as a key tumor suppressor pathway. Here, we perform a comprehensive molecular characterization of 19 Hippo core genes in 9,125 tumor samples across 33 cancer types using multidimensional “omic” data from The Cancer Genome Atlas. We identify somatic drivers among Hippo genes and the related microRNA (miRNA) regulators, and using functional genomic approaches, we experimentally characterize YAP and TAZ mutation effects and miR-590 and miR-200a regulation for TAZ. Hippo pathway activity is best characterized by a YAP/TAZ transcriptional target signature of 22 genes, which shows robust prognostic power across cancer types. Our elastic-net integrated modeling further reveals cancer-type-specific pathway regulators and associated cancer drivers. Our results highlight the importance of Hippo signaling in squamous cell cancers, characterized by frequent amplification of YAP/TAZ, high expression heterogeneity, and significant prognostic patterns. This study represents a systems-biology approach to characterizing key cancer signaling pathways in the post-genomic era

Mathematical Modelling for Performance Evaluation Using Velocity Control for Semi-autonomous Vehicle

Freight Urban RoBOTic vehicle (FURBOT) is a semi autonomous vehicle for which it is desired that it could deliver freight autonomously from one destination to another. The vehicle is required to operate in Genova, Italy which in general has steep slopes. Additionally, safety of this vehicle and of the environment is of critical importance for urban autonomous driving thus the need for having a simulation model arises. Furthermore, the vehicle is expected to perform last mile freight delivery in European H2020 project SHOW for which highest autonomy is required. For these purposes, a mathematical model is constructed for autonomous velocity control over gradient varying hilly terrain. Autonomous traction and braking of the vehicle is introduced for catering for gradient varying terrain. The model built for this vehicle will serve as basis for embedding new sensors in future, tracking their performance and overall creating a safe environment for the vehicle to operate

Composing Dynamical Systems to Realize Dynamic Robotic Dancing

This paper presents a methodology for the composition of complex dynamic behaviors in legged robots, and illustrates these concepts to experimentally achieve robotic dancing . Inspired by principles from dynamic locomotion, we begin by constructing controllers that drive a collection of virtual constraints to zero; this creates a low-dimensional representation of the bipedal robot. Given any two poses of the robot, we utilize this low-dimensional representation to connect these poses through a dynamic transition. The end result is a meta-dynamical system that describes a series of poses (indexed by the vertices of a graph) together with dynamic transitions (indexed by the edges) connecting these poses. These formalisms are illustrated in the case of dynamic dancing; a collection of ten poses are connected through dynamic transitions obtained via virtual constraints, and transitions through the graph are synchronized with music tempo. The resulting meta-dynamical system is realized experimentally on the bipedal robot AMBER 2 yielding dynamic robotic dancing

Bipedal walking with push recovery balance control involves posture correction

[[abstract]]In this paper, a bipedal walking with push recovery balance control is proposed which involves posture correction of the robot. The biped robot could become unstable when it is under the influence of an external force. The method is proposed to achieve balance under such influence. Specifically, a set of force sensors are used to calculate the zero moment point, while a gyroscope and an accelerometer are used to estimate the inclination angle of the robot. Then, this sensor feedback is used to adjust the standing posture so that the robot can maintain the upright and stable state. Finally, an integral control for the static standing posture correction and a linear inverted pendulum with a flywheel model are developed for dynamic walking balance. The experimental results show that the proposed method enables the biped robot to achieve self-balance.[[notice]]補正完