SCA 2015 Keynotes
We will host two great keynote speakers at SCA 2015:
Dr. Robert J. Full (University of California, Berkeley)
Dr. Jessica K. Hodgins (Carnegie Mellon University)
 |
Dr. Robert J. Full |
BioMotion Science: Leapin’ Lizards, Gripping Geckos and Compressed Cockroaches Inspire Robots, Adhesives and Exoskeletons
Abstract: BioMotion solutions are remarkably diverse and inspirational, but equally complex. Fortunately, common patterns have led to the discovery of general principles represented by simple models we call templates. Animals manage energy using the principles of pendulums, pogo sticks, and balance poles with amazing feet, spring-like legs and swinging tails by composing templates in parallel. Animals are inseparable from their environment. A new field of terradynamics based on granular physics has emerged to explain terrestrial locomotion as we have done with aero- and hydro-dynamics. Robustness in Nature far exceeds any machine with respect to being fail-safe and fault tolerant. New manufacturing techniques based on exoskeletons have allowed the first generation of robots that can rival animals, persist, and begin to go everywhere. Unfortunately, robots are stupid, but animals employ cognition in their biomechanics in still unknown ways.
Short biography: Robert J. Full is a Chancellor’s and Goldman Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California at Berkeley. He has led a focused international effort to demonstrate the value of biological inspiration by the formation of interdisciplinary collaborations of biologists, engineers, mathematicians and computer scientists from academia and industry. Professor Full is founder and director of CiBER, the Center for interdisciplinary Bio-inspiration in Education and Research and the Poly-PEDAL Laboratory, which studies the Performance, Energetics and Dynamics of Animal Locomotion (PEDAL) in many-footed creatures (Poly). His research program in comparative biomechanics has shown how examining a diversity of animals can lead to the discovery of general principles. His fundamental discoveries in animal locomotion have inspired the design of novel neural control circuits, artificial muscles, autonomous legged search-and-rescue robots and the first, synthetic self-cleaning dry adhesive named one of the top ten nanotechnology patents. Professor Full has authored over two hundred contributions and has delivered over three hundred national and international presentations. He has been featured in or contributed to more than 20 national and international science television shows, has acted as consultant to the National Academies Science and Entertainment Exchange on movies and TV programs, assisted in the making of movies, and has been a Juror for the Science-in-Film Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
 |
Dr. Jessica K. Hodgins |
Capture and Simulation of Human Motion