Modeling, simulation, and optimization in Robotics
The group has a long tradition in robotics research and runs a Robotics
Lab. While initial research focused on trajectory
optimization of industrial robots in production, but also in space, the attention now has shifted to the generation of efficient and open-loop stable motions for biologically inspired walking robots and to the study of biological gaits.
Problems investigated range from one-and two-legged hopping, walking and running robots to
anthropomorephic models of track running and platform diving. The resulting mathematical models are hybrid periodic dynamic systems with
multiple ODE or DAE phases and state variable discontinuities.
Since the stability of the resulting motion is of particular interest in this
context, we develop methods to determine solutions of periodic optimal control problems that are open-loop stable. The criteria used
in this context such as the spectral radius of the monodromy matrix of the periodic solution lead to non-differentiable functions involving
first order derivatives of the non-smooth trajectories.
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![[a]](https://simopt.iwr.uni-heidelberg.de/simopt_old/IMAGES/klammeraffe.gif)