Chaotic physics approach leads researchers to insectlike gaits for robots

The experimental robot, demonstrating the location of the six legs and the corresponding joints. Source: American Institute of Physics

Researchers in Japan and Italy are embracing chaos and nonlinear physics to create insectlike gaits for tiny robots — complete with a locomotion controller to provide a brain-machine interface. Biology and physics are permeated by universal phenomena fundamentally grounded in nonlinear physics, and it inspired the researchers’ work.