Prof. Luther Palmer has received a 4 year $293,000.00 grant from DARPA under the Maximum Mobility and Manipulation (M3) program.

Title: Biologically-based network controller for dynamic locomotion of  legged morphologies with variably compliant actuators.

This research aims to develop a network control system for legged robots,  based upon neural pathways identified in legged animals, that will enable robots to dynamically adapt their gaits to terrain irregularities while maintaining stability.  The neurobiological basis for this controller has
only become known in the last several years, and we propose to implement this algorithm in hardware and confirm the generality of the control technique on a wide range of morphologies.