Studying biological systems with engineering tools reveals trends and trade-offs in physics to guide principled design in robotics. This goes beyond just bio-inspiration. Instead, we look to apply analysis techniques from mechanics, dynamics, and controls that reveal potential guiding principles in robotics, and bring new insights to evolution and ecology.

Some of our publications in the topic include:

Sutton, G.P., St Pierre, R., Kuo, C.Y., Summers, A.P., Bergbreiter, S., Cox, S. and Patek, S.N., 2022. Dual spring force couples yield multifunctionality and ultrafast, precision rotation in tiny biomechanical systems. Journal of Experimental Biology, 225(14), p.jeb244077.

Divi, S., Ma, X., Ilton, M., St. Pierre, R., Eslami, B., Patek, S.N. and Bergbreiter, S., 2020. Latch-based control of energy output in spring actuated systems. Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 17(168), p.20200070.

Longo, S.J., Cox, S.M., Azizi, E., Ilton, M., Olberding, J.P., St Pierre, R. and Patek, S.N., 2019. Beyond power amplification: latch-mediated spring actuation is an emerging framework for the study of diverse elastic systems. Journal of Experimental Biology, 222(15), p.jeb197889.