This project is aimed at fundamental research in the general area of automatic control, with emphasis on legged robots. In this sense, it also has an important application aspect. The overall objectives are to contribute to modeling and control of a class of nonlinear, hybrid systems that arise in the study of legged robots. A specific research objective is the study of the relative roles of "Mechanics" on the one hand and "Automation" on the other for designing an articulated mechanical system and associated control laws for achieving asymptotically stable motion at a constant speed with low energy consumption.
From the control design point of view, one of the interesting aspects of this problem, which is also a great source of analytical difficulty, is the necessity to use several dynamical models in order to describe the evolution of the system, more...

Webcam of the Rabbit platform

Rabbit on French TV M6 (in french)

Discovery Channel Canada TV - May, 17 2005

Discovery.com : Human-Like Robot Runs - April, 22 2005

CNN : Robot walks, balances like a human - April, 20 2005

IEEE Control Systems Magazine, October 2003 RABBIT : A Testbed for Advanced Control Theory read...

March, 14 2003 : Rabbit on French Channel 3