{"587747":{"#nid":"587747","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Smoothing Contact-Rich Dynamics Using Morphological Computation","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EUniversity of Washington\u0026rsquo;s Sam A. Burden presents \u0026ldquo;Smoothing Contact-Rich Dynamics Using Morphological Computation.\u0026rdquo; The event will be held in the Klaus Advanced Computing Building, Room 1116 West, from 3-4 p.m. and is open to the public.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAbstract\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETo move over, around, or through obstacles in the world, robots and animals need to employ a repertoire of dynamic and dexterous behaviors.\u0026nbsp; Since the world is ever-changing, these behaviors must be synthesized on-the-fly and adapted to diverse environmental conditions.\u0026nbsp; At present, animals deftly outperform autonomous robots in this regard.\u0026nbsp; We seek tools that will enable the performance of dynamic legged robots to surpass that of their animal counterparts.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn this talk, we discuss advances in modeling and control of dynamic legged locomotion.\u0026nbsp; Unlike some areas of robotics and biomechanics, models for most dynamic legged behaviors have poor predictive power.\u0026nbsp; In particular, rigid-body models of legged locomotion yield predictions that vary discontinuously when multiple limbs contact terrain.\u0026nbsp; By introducing compliance in hips and feet, we show that model predictions vary smoothly with respect to initial conditions (including states, parameters, and inputs).\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESmooth model predictions are amenable to scalable algorithms for estimation, optimization, and learning; we briefly discuss our current efforts and future plans in these directions.\u0026nbsp; We conclude that compliance in hips and feet perform morphological computations that can simplify modeling and control of dynamic legged locomotion.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBio\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESam Burden earned his B.S. with Honors in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington in Seattle in 2008.\u0026nbsp;He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley in 2014, where he subsequently spent one year as a postdoctoral scholar.\u0026nbsp;In 2015, he returned to UW EE as an assistant professor; in 2016, he received a Young Investigator award from the Army Research Office (ARO-YIP).\u0026nbsp;Burden is broadly interested in discovering and formalizing principles of sensorimotor control.\u0026nbsp;Specifically, he focuses on applications in dynamic and dexterous robotics, neuromechanical motor control, and human-cyber-physical systems.\u0026nbsp;In his spare time, he teaches robotics to students of all ages in classrooms and campus events.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EUniversity of Washington\u0026rsquo;s Sam A. Burden presents \u0026ldquo;Smoothing Contact-Rich Dynamics Using Morphological Computation.\u0026rdquo; The event will be held in the Klaus Advanced Computing Building, Room 1116 West, from 3-4 p.m. and is open to the public.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Sam A. Burden presents a seminar for the School of Physics."}],"uid":"27255","created_gmt":"2017-02-21 22:19:10","changed_gmt":"2017-04-13 21:12:43","author":"Josie Giles","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2017-02-28T15:00:00-05:00","event_time_end":"2017-02-28T16:00:00-05:00","event_time_end_last":"2017-02-28T16:00:00-05:00","gmt_time_start":"2017-02-28 20:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2017-02-28 21:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2017-02-28 21:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"587748":{"id":"587748","type":"image","title":"Sam A. Burden","body":null,"created":"1487715627","gmt_created":"2017-02-21 22:20:27","changed":"1487715627","gmt_changed":"2017-02-21 22:20:27","alt":"","file":{"fid":"224002","name":"sam-burden-2x2.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/sam-burden-2x2.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/sam-burden-2x2.png","mime":"image\/png","size":492271,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/sam-burden-2x2.png?itok=uYePA9Tc"}}},"media_ids":["587748"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/faculty.washington.edu\/sburden\/","title":"Sam A. Burden"}],"groups":[{"id":"142761","name":"IRIM"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"},{"id":"81491","name":"Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM)"},{"id":"667","name":"robotics"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78761","name":"Faculty\/Staff"},{"id":"78771","name":"Public"},{"id":"78751","name":"Undergraduate students"},{"id":"174045","name":"Graduate students"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003Eshaun.ashley@physics.gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}