A review on locomotion robophysics: the study of movement at the intersection of robotics, soft matter and dynamical systems

TL;DR

This review advocates for a physics-based approach to studying locomotion, called robophysics, which uses simplified models and systematic experiments to uncover principles of movement applicable to robotics, biology, and physics.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of robophysics as a systematic, physics-driven methodology for understanding and designing locomotion in complex environments, complementing traditional robotics.

Findings

Robophysical studies have helped develop life-like locomotion devices.

Such studies have inspired physics questions in dynamical systems and soft matter.

Robophysics bridges experiment, theory, and computation in locomotion research.

Abstract

In this review we argue for the creation of a physics of moving systems -- a locomotion "robophysics" -- which we define as the pursuit of the discovery of principles of self generated motion. Robophysics can provide an important intellectual complement to the discipline of robotics, largely the domain of researchers from engineering and computer science. The essential idea is that we must complement study of complex robots in complex situations with systematic study of simplified robophysical devices in controlled laboratory settings and simplified theoretical models. We must thus use the methods of physics to examine successful and failed locomotion in simplified (abstracted) devices using parameter space exploration, systematic control, and techniques from dynamical systems. Using examples from our and other's research, we will discuss how such robophysical studies have begun to aid engineers in the creation of devices that begin to achieve life-like locomotor abilities on and within complex environments, have inspired interesting physics questions in low dimensional dynamical systems, geometric mechanics and soft matter physics, and have been useful to develop models for biological locomotion in complex terrain. The rapidly decreasing cost of constructing sophisticated robot models with easy access to significant computational power bodes well for scientists and engineers to engage in a discipline which can readily integrate experiment, theory and computation.