NSF Young Investigator Award

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This research emphasizes interaction control and reflex control in autonomous systems. Physical interaction with the environment (e.g., opening doors; moving obstructions; complying with mechanical constraints) is a key ingredient of reactive autonomous systems, and impedance control will be furthered to provide such behavior. In particular, stable and "gentle" manipulation behaviors will be investigated and constructed using principals of passive physical equivalents. The target resulting behavior should achieve stable interaction among any number of independently- controlled machines. Such physical behavior will provide a suitable platform for investigation of reflex-like, higher-level controllers. Reflex controllers, like conventional control systems, generate commands based on sensory inputs. Unlike traditional control, though, reflex-like responses invoke logic- based and switched-mode actions that cannot be analyzed in the traditional terms of linear superposition of inputs or outputs. Use of such nonlinear control constructions has proven highly valuable in understanding control in biological creatures, though such control is inadequately understood to be applied to machines. In this research, biological stimulus/response behaviors will be mimicked in constructing computer controls for the purpose of experimentally investigating stability properties and design techniques for behavior-based systems. //