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“From Robotic Fish to Hummingbirds: Embodied Intelligence in Aquatic and Aerial Locomotion”
Abstract:
In bioinspired locomotion, the superior performance and intelligent behaviors observed in animals and robots often emerge from the dynamic interactions among body structure, musculoskeletal joint mechanics, neural reflexes, and the physical properties of the surrounding environment. We consider such dynamic interactions to give rise to a form of embodied intelligence. In this talk, I will present three examples to highlight such embodied intelligence in aquatic and aerial locomotion. First, I will describe how intelligent swimming behaviors in a modular robotic fish, such as tandem swimming and efficient station keeping, emerge from hydrodynamic pressure feedback and joint torque control. Second, I will illustrate how the inverted landing maneuvers of bluebottle flies inspire control strategies for dynamic perching in small micro aerial vehicles, enabling rapid and robust landings on surfaces with varied orientations and approach conditions. Lastly, I will describe how hummingbirds achieve rapid disturbance rejection and exceptional whole-body aerial stability. This is accomplished through wing-body joint-level stability that exploits aero-inertial dynamics - specifically, Flapping Counter-Torque (FCT) - allowing them to reject external disturbances within a single wingbeat, even in the absence of active control. We hypothesize that such capabilities arise from the self-stabilizing properties of their wing musculature or reflexes at the spinal level. Together, these examples underscore the importance of embodied intelligence in achieving robust, adaptive, and efficient locomotion in both natural and robotic systems.
Bio:
Dr. Cheng is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Penn State. Prior to this, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, where he received his Ph.D. in 2012. He also received his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Delaware and B.S. from Control Science & Engineering at Zhejiang University, China. His research interests lie in the broad science and engineering of efficient, robust and agile locomotion in fluids, including animal flight, fish swimming, robot locomotion and learning and biologically inspired fluid dynamics. Working in a highly interdisciplinary field, Dr. Cheng's work has been published in journals from various disciplines, such as Science, Science Advances, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Physics of Fluids, IEEE Transaction on Robotics, Proceedings of Royal Society B, Journal of Experimental Biology, and Journal of the Royal Society Interface. His research has been funded by various programs of National Science Foundation (NSF), Army Research Office (ARO), Office of Naval Research (ONR), and Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Dr. Cheng received NSF CAREER Award in 2016.
Host: Dr. Haibo Dong