Research in AMBER Lab

The research in AMBER Lab centers ranges from bipedal robotic walking to formal hybrid systems theory.  Below you will find videos demonstrating results on:
For more videos, see http://www.youtube.com/user/ProfAmes

General Overview of the Research in AMBER Lab

A seminar given a general overview of the research being conducted in AMBER Lab related to:

  • Bipedal Robotics
  • Human-Inspired Robotic Control
  • Geometric Reduction Based Control

A lot of new results have been obtained since this talk, so catch  up on what has happened by visiting the publications page.

Experimental Bipedal Robotics

Verifying formal theories on physical robots, and specifically bipedal robots.  Currently, AMBER lab has custom built two bipedal robots, AMBER 1 and AMBER 2, and is testing ideas on the NAO robot.  This is made possible through collaborations with National Instruments. 

Human-Inspired Robotic Walking

Using human walking data to achieve robotic walking.

  • Begin with human walking
  • Determine constraints from the human data over time
  • Encode these constraints to construct robotic models and controllers
  • Implement these controllers in simulation
  • Obtain "human-inspired" robotic walking

Automatically Generating Robotic Walking from Human Data

Automatically generating stable robotic walking with only human data as an input.  Despite the differences between humans and robots, this method can successfully achieve walking for a wide-variety of robotic models.

  • Using only human data, we automatically generate the parameters for a human-inspired controller
  • These same parameters automatically guarantee the existence of a walking gait, and we can produce the fixed point to this gait in closed form. 

Human-Inspired Hybrid Zero Dynamics

Using human-inspired output functions to achieve robotic walking and, moreover, guarantee that these outputs are invariant through impact.

Prosthetic Design

Using human-inspired controllers to simulate humans using prosthetic devices.

Zeno Behavior

Formal methods in detecting Zeno behavior through Lyapunov theory.