Energy-optimized bipedal running of a simple humanoid robot

A method to optimize energy efficiency for bipedal running robots is presented. A running model of a simple bipedal robot consisting of five rigid bodies connected by actuated revolute joints is introduced. The actuators' torques are generated by a trajectory tracking controller to produce periodic running gaits. The controller's reference trajectories are parameterized by Bézier polynomials. A numerical optimization is used to employ reference trajectories with optimal energy efficiency for average velocities in the range of 1.5 to 5.5 m/s. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A damped bipedal inverted pendulum for human–structure interaction analysis

The bipedal inverted pendulum with damping has been adopted to simulate human–structure interaction recently. However, the lack of analysis and verification has provided motivation for further investigation. Leg damping and energy compensation strategy are required for the bipedal inverted pendulum to regulate gait patterns on vibrating structures. In this paper, the Hunt–Crossley model is adopted to get zeros contact force at touch down, while energy compensation is achieved by adjusting the stiffness and rest length of the legs. The damped bipedal inverted pendulum can achieve stable periodic gait with a lower energy input and flatter attack angle so that more gaits are available, compared to the template, referred to as spring-load inverted pendulum. The measured and simulated vertical ground reaction force-time histories are in good agreement. In addition, the dynamic load factors are also within a reasonable range. Parametric analysis shows that the damped bipedal inverted pendulum can achieve stable gaits of 1.6 to 2.4 Hz with a reasonable first harmonic dynamic load factor, which covers the normal walking step frequency. The proposed model in this paper can be applied to human–structure interaction analysis.     

Omnidirectional walking of legged robots with a failed leg

This paper studies omnidirectional walking of a hexapod robot with a locked joint failure by proposing crab gaits and turning gaits. Due to the reduced workspace of a failed leg, fault-tolerant gaits have limitations in their mobility. As for crab gaits, an accessible range of the crab angle is derived for a given configuration of the failed leg. As for turning gaits, the conditions on turning trajectories guaranteeing fault tolerance are derived for spinning gaits and circling gaits. Based on the principles of fault-tolerant gait planning, periodic crab gaits and turning gaits are proposed in which a hexapod robot realizes tripod walking after a locked joint failure, having a reasonable stride length and stability margin. The proposed fault-tolerant gaits are then applied to an obstacle avoidance problem of a hexapod robot with a locked joint failure. The kinematic constraints of fault-tolerant gaits should be considered in planning the robot trajectory.     

Study on feet forces' distributions,energy consumption and dynamic stability measure of hexapod robot during crab walking

This paper deals with the development of a dynamical model related to crab walking of a hexapod robot to determine the feet forces' distributions, energy consumption and dynamic stability measure considering the inertial effects of the legs on the system, which has not been attempted before. Both forward and inverse kinematic analyses of the robot are carried out with an assigned fixed global frame and subsequent local frames in the trunk body and joints of each leg. Coupled multi-body dynamic model of the robot is developed based on free-body diagram approach. Optimal feet forces and corresponding joint torques on all the legs are determined based on the minimization of the sum of the squares of joint torques, using quadratic programming (QP) method. An energy consumption model is developed to determine the minimum energy required for optimal values of feet forces. To ensure dynamically stable gaits, dynamic gait stability margin (DGSM) is determined from the angular momentum of the system about the supporting edges. Computer simulations have been carried out to test the effectiveness of the developed dynamic model with crab wave gaits on a banking surface. It is observed that when the swing leg touches the ground, impact forces (sudden shoot outs) are generated and their effects are also observed on the joints of the legs. The effects of walking parameters, namely trunk body velocity, body stroke, leg offset, body height, crab angle etc. on power consumption and stability during crab motion for duty factors (DFs) like 1/2, 2/3, 3/4 have also been studied.     

Modeling and identification of emotional aspects of locomotion

The studies of emotional facial expressions and emotional body language are currently receiving a lot of attention in the cognitive sciences. In this project, we study implicit bodily expression of emotions during standard motions, such as walking forwards.An underlying assumption of our work is that all human motion is optimal in some sense and that different emotions induce different objective functions, which result in different deformations of normal motion.We created a 3D rigid-body model of a human of which we use the forward dynamics simulation in an optimal control context. We performed two kinds of optimizations: (i) reconstruction of dynamic quantities, such as joint torques, of pre-recorded data of emotional walking motions and (ii) forward optimization that generates neutral and varied walking motions using different objective functions. Optimizations are performed with the software package MUSCOD-II, which uses a direct multiple-shooting discretization scheme. The results of this work form the foundation for further analysis of emotional motions using inverse optimal control methods.     

Approximating the relationship among the degree of the reaction forces and the nodes on footprint during a stance phase

This study examined the foot biomechanics that are utilized when foot is in contact with the ground during a stance phase. The purpose of the study was to investigate the normalized ground reaction forces that impacted certain sections and points on the footprint, and to identify patterns in the degrees to which these forces occurred. Foot was modeled in such a manner that a vertex represented a bone and an edge represented a joint, and a graph that depicted the foot was created. Twelve nodes were marked on the footprint and these were linked together to create a gait path. By fusing the graph and the gait path and by manipulating the mathematical models, a profile for an ideal bipedal walking locomotion was developed. A male subject performed bipedal walking through a force plate system in order to obtain the profile that reflected actual bipedal walking. The actual and the proposed profiles were compared and there were significant similarities between the two profiles, with both exhibiting an double-bump pattern. It is therefore viable that the approximation techniques proposed in this work may provide an alternative means over the application of a force plate system to generate a profile for bipedal walking. However, the accuracy and reliability of the results yielded from this technique need further investigation.     

New walking dynamics in the simplest passive bipedal walking model

This paper revisits the simplest passive walking model by Garcia et al. which displays chaos through period doubling from a stable period-1 gait. By carefully numerical studies, two new gaits with period-3 and -4 are found, whose stability is verified by estimates of eigenvalues of the corresponding Jacobian matrices. A surprising phenomenon uncovered here is that they both lead to higher periodic cycles and chaos via period doubling. To study the three different types of chaotic gaits rigorously, the existence of horseshoes is verified and estimates of the topological entropies are made by computer-assisted proofs in terms of topological horseshoe theory.     

On the lower bound for a class of harmonic functions in the half space

The main objective is to derive a lower bound from an upper one for harmonic functions in the half space, which extends a result of B. Y. Levin from dimension 2 to dimension n ≥ 2. To this end, we first generalize the Carleman's formula for harmonic functions in the half plane to higher dimensional half space, and then establish a Nevanlinna's representation for harmonic functions in the half sphere by using Hörmander's theorem.     

Sensitivity Analysis of Human Leg Metabolical Costs

The human walking is characterized by skeletal dynamics and muscle excitation patterns minimizing the metabolical energy. This criterion is applied to assess the performance of lower limb prosthetic devices, and to evaluate therapies for patients presenting gait disorders. It is desirable, therefore, to dispose models of the human normal and pathological gaits capable of estimating the metabolical energy expenditure. For the swing phase of normal and pathological gaits a musculoskeletal model of the lower limb is presented to estimate metabolical energy expenditure. The mechanical model has three degrees of freedom and is actuated by eight Hill-type muscle units, and the model for the metabolical costs is adopted from literature. In this paper a combination of inverse and direct dynamics is used, and a sensitivity analysis of the dynamical behavior and the corresponding metabolical costs estimations with respect to parametrized neural excitations is performed. The leg motions are based on experiments in a gait analysis laboratory. (© 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

One class of MHD equations: Conservation laws and exact solutions

The paper analyzes one of the models of equations of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) derived earlier. The model was obtained as a result of group classification of the MHD equations in mass Lagrangian coordinates, where all dependent variables in Eulerian coordinates depend on time and two spatial coordinates. The use of Lagrangian coordinates made it possible to solve four equations, which led to the form of reduced equations containing four arbitrary functions: entropy and a three-dimensional vector associated with the magnetic field. The objective of this work is to develop conservation laws and exact solutions for the model. Conservation laws are obtained using Noether's theorem, while exact solutions are obtained either explicitly or by solving a system of ordinary or partial differential equations with two independent variables. Numerical methods are employed for the latter solutions.     

Vectorial Ekeland's Variational Principle with a W-Distance and its Equivalent Theorems

By using the properties of w-distances and Gerstewitz's functions, we first give a vectorial Takahashi's nonconvex minimization theorem with a w-distance. From this, we deduce a general vectorial Ekeland's variational principle, where the objective function is from a complete metric space into a pre-ordered topological vector space and the perturbation contains a w-distance and a non-decreasing function of the objective function value. From the general vectorial variational principle, we deduce a vectorial Caristi's fixed point theorem with a w-distance. Finally we show that the above three theorems are equivalent to each other. The related known results are generalized and improved. In particular, some conditions in the theorems of [Y. Araya, Ekeland's variational principle and its equivalent theorems in vector optimization, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 346(2008), 9–16[ are weakened or even completely relieved.     

Rank-one convexity implies polyconvexity for isotropic,objective and isochoric elastic energies in the two-dimensional case

We show that in the two-dimensional case, every objective, isotropic and isochoric energy function which is rank-one convex on GL⁺(2) is already polyconvex on GL⁺(2). Thus we negatively answer Morrey's conjecture in the subclass of isochoric nonlinear energies, since polyconvexity implies quasiconvexity. Our methods are based on different representation formulae for objective and isotropic functions in general as well as for isochoric functions in particular. We also state criteria for these convexity conditions in terms of the deviatoric part of the logarithmic strain tensor. (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Development of a Neuro-Fuzzy approach for treating multimodal distributions and spurious clusters

In this paper, we introduce a developed approach of neuro-fuzzy model free estimators to treat decision problems, where presence of highly multimodal distribution and spurious clusters in decision space causes problems in estimation. After critical analysis of Bart Kosko's DCL–AVQ + FAM neuro-fuzzy system, we developed our Straitjacket + F-wing system. Straitjacket neural system is an improved version of Kohonen's feature mapping according to convergence and termination conditions. F-wing fuzzy system bases on the feature map produced by Straitjacket and provides faster and more exact estimator interface than Bart Kosko's FAM, using fuzzy wing functions instead of fuzzy hyperpyramids. At the end of the paper we perform a test on artificial database comparing the efficiency of our approach with Kosko's system, discriminant analysis, hierarchic and K-mean clustering.     

An interval nonlinear program for the planning of waste management systems with economies-of-scale effects—A case study for the region of Hamilton,Ontario, Canada

In practical environmental systems with the effects of economies-of-scale (EOS), most relationships among different system components are nonlinear in nature, which can be described precisely only if a nonlinear model is employed. In this study, an interval nonlinear programming (INLP) model is developed and applied to the planning of a municipal solid waste (MSW) management system with EOS effects on system costs. The INLP has a nonlinear objective function and linear constraints. It handles nonlinearity presented as exponential functions. When exponential term p = 1 (in the INLP’s objective function), the model becomes an interval linear program; when p = 2, it becomes an interval quadratic program. Therefore, the INLP is flexible in reflecting a variety of system complexities. A solution algorithm with satisfactory performance is proposed. Application of the proposed method to the planning of waste management activities in the Hamilton-Wentworth Region, Ontario, Canada, indicated that reasonable solutions have been generated. In general, the INLP model could reflect uncertain and nonlinear characteristics of MSW management systems with EOS effects. The modeling results provided useful decision support for the Region’s waste management activities.     

Stress and free vibration analysis of functionally graded beams using static Green's functions

In this paper static Green's functions for functionally graded Euler-Bernoulli and Timoshenko beams are presented. All material properties are arbitrary functions along the beam thickness direction. The closed-form solutions of static Green's functions are derived from a fourth-order partial differential equation presented in [2]. In combination with Betti's reciprocal theorem the Green's functions are applied to calculate internal forces and stress analysis of functionally graded beams (FGBs) under static loadings. For symmetrical material properties along the beam thickness direction and symmetric cross-sections, the resulting stress distributions are also symmetric. For unsymmetrical material properties the neutral axis and the center of gravity axis are located at different positions. Free vibrations of functionally graded Timoshenko beams are also analyzed [3]. Analytical solutions of eigenfunctions and eigenfrequencies in closed-forms are obtained based on reference [2]. Alternatively it is also possible to use static Green's functions and Fredholm's integral equations to obtain approximate eigenfunctions and eigenfrequencies by an iterative procedure as shown in [1]. Applying the Sensitivity Analysis with Green's Functions (SAGF) [1] to derive closed-form analytical solutions of functionally graded beams, it is possible to modify the derived static Green's functions and include terms taking cracks into account, which are modeled by translational or rotational springs. Furthermore the SAGF approach in combination with the superposition principle can be used to take stiffness jumps into account and to extend static Green's functions of simple beams to that of discontinuous beams by adding new supports. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A comparison of static optimization criteria for resolving the 3D muscle redundancy problem during human gait

In this paper, different approaches of static optimization for predicting muscle forces during human walking are investigated. In order to better reflect the true mechanics of the human body, a three-dimensional musculoskeletal model of a single leg is developed. The joint moments generated by muscles during walking are computed from inverse dynamics. The muscle force is estimated by different optimization criteria, each satisfying the moment constraints at all joints and the lower and upper muscle force constraints. Several polynomial and non-polynomial criteria frequently used in literature are studied. Then the results obtained from these calculations are compared with each other. This paper provides an overview of the effects of different optimization criteria on the 3D muscle force distribution problem during human walking. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

On a refinement of a theorem of Landau on Koebe domains

We state and prove a refinement of a classical theorem due to Landau on the Koebe domains for certain families of holomorphic functions introduced by A. W. Goodman. Our geometric approach in this article enables us to derive several statements of interest, which would not be produced via the methods in Goodman's paper, as immediate corollaries of the proof of the main theorem.     

Metaheuristics for multiobjective optimisation

This is a summary of the author’s PhD thesis supervised by Laetitia Jourdan and El-Ghazali Talbi and defended on 8 December 2009 at the Université Lille 1. The thesis is written in French and is available from . This work deals with the design, implementation and experimental analysis of metaheuristics for solving multiobjective optimisation problems, with a particular interest on hard and large combinatorial problems from the field of logistics. After focusing on a unified view of multiobjective metaheuristics, we propose new cooperative, adaptive and parallel approaches. The performance of these methods are experimented on a scheduling and a routing problem involving two or three objective functions. We finally discuss how to adapt such metaheuristics during the search process in order to handle uncertainty that may occur from many different sources.     

A new complexity result on multiobjective linear integer programming using short rational generating functions

This paper presents a new complexity result for solving multiobjective integer programming problems. We prove that encoding the entire set of nondominated solutions of the problem in a short sum of rational functions is polynomially doable, when the dimension of the decision space is fixed. This result extends a previous result presented in De Loera et al. (INFORMS J. Comput. 21(1):39–48, 2009) in that there the number of the objective functions is assumed to be fixed whereas ours allows this number to vary.     

Minor summation formula and a proof of Stanley’s open problem

In the open problem session of the FPSAC’03, R.P. Stanley gave an open problem about a certain sum of the Schur functions. The purpose of this paper is to give a proof of this open problem. The proof consists of three steps. At the first step we express the sum by a Pfaffian as an application of our minor summation formula (Ishikawa and Wakayama in Linear Multilinear Algebra 39:285–305, 1995). In the second step we prove a Pfaffian analogue of a Cauchy type identity which generalizes Sundquist’s Pfaffian identities (J. Algebr. Comb. 5:135–148, 1996). Then we give a proof of Stanley’s open problem in Sect. 4. At the end of this paper we present certain corollaries obtained from this identity involving the Big Schur functions and some polynomials arising from the Macdonald polynomials, which generalize Stanley’s open problem.