Movement Lab
Points of Pride
We are interested in understanding the movement of things: humans, other animals, and machines.
Some central scientific questions are: Why do animals move the way they do? And how do they do it so well? We are interested in obtaining a simple and tractable, yet complete, theory of legged locomotion and sensorimotor control in humans and other animals -- a theory that will reliably predict how an animal will act in a novel situation (say, humans on the moon), how the animal will respond to perturbations (say, stepping on a banana peel), or how we should design better wearable robotics such as robotic prostheses and exoskeletons and other biomechatronic assistive devices. We use a mixture of mathematics, modeling, computation, and experiments.
The Movement Lab is located within the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Ohio State University and is led by Manoj Srinivasan.
A few years ago, we hosted the Dynamic Walking Conference (2015) at Ohio State.
Accordions
- Nidhi Seethapathi and Manoj Srinivasan. Step-to-step variations in human running reveal how humans run without falling. eLife, 8, e38371, 2019.
- Varun Joshi and Manoj Srinivasan. Walking crowds on a shaky surface: Stable walkers discover Millennium Bridge oscillations with and without pedestrian synchrony. Biology Letters, 14, 2018.
- Matthew L. Handford and Manoj Srinivasan. Energy-optimal human walking with feedback-controlled robotic prostheses: a computational study. IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, 26, 1773-1782, 2018.
- Matthew Handford and Manoj Srinivasan. Robotic lower limb prosthesis design through simultaneous computer optimizations of human and prosthesis costs. Nature Scientific Reports, 6, 19983, 2016.
- Nidhi Seethapathi and Manoj Srinivasan. The metabolic cost of changing walking speeds is significant, implies lower optimal speeds for shorter distances, and increases daily energy estimates. Accepted with minor revision, 11, 20150486, 2015.
- Varun Joshi and Manoj Srinivasan. Walking on a moving surface: energy-optimal walking motions on a shaky bridge and a shaking treadmill reduce energy costs below normal, Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 20140662, 2015.
- Yang Wang and Manoj Srinivasan. Stepping in the direction of the fall: the next foot placement can be predicted from current upper body state in steady-state walking, Biology Letters, 10, 20140405, 2014.
See here for Media/Press articles on this paper.
- Leroy Long and Manoj Srinivasan. Walking, running and resting under time, distance, and speed constraints: Optimality of walk-run-rest mixtures, J. Royal Society Interface, vol. 10, 2013.
See media coverage.
- Manoj Srinivasan. Fifteen observations on the structure of energy minimizing gaits in many simple biped models. J. Royal Society Interface, 8, 74-98, 2011.
Research Area websites
Biomechanics research and courses at Ohio State
Robotics research and courses at Ohio State .
How to write a paper or a report
"How to write a good report" by Andy Ruina
"Good writing" by Marc Raibert.
On Writing Well, by William Zinsser. In which he says that rewriting is the essence of writing well. Pages 10-11 give good examples.
"How to write a great research paper" by Simon Peyton Jones
About writing especially in mathematics, by Terry Tao
B. J. Fregly's tips on writing for the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering
I find passive voice indirect. I avoid passive voice when appropriate, but not always. In this context, I love the following comparison: "why did the chicken cross the road?" versus "why was the road crossed by the chicken?"
How to give a good talk or presentation
- "How to give a good research talk" by Simon Peyton Jones.
- Another one by Newhall.
Other common tasks of a scientist
- How to review a paper
- How to read a research paper.
- Efficient reading of papers in science and technology. How to read a technical paper, by James Eisner.
- Here's another one and yet another one.
In general, try to read a LOT of papers, at least their abstracts and introductions.
- Writing a good grant proposal, by Simon Peyton Jones
- Good programming style.
- The PLOS family of journals had series of essays called "Ten Simple Rules," covering various topics of general interest: ten simple rules for getting published, for getting grants, for reviewers, for selecting a postdoctoral position, for a successful collaboration, for making oral presentations, for a good poster presentation, for doing your best research, for graduate students, organizing a scientific meeting, etc.
- Why maintain a lab notebook and how.
Other webpages with graduate student or researcher resources
Simon Peyton Jones
Research Tips, by Sylvia Miksch
Dave Evans' Advice collection
Great Research.Org
Just google whatever you wish to do well.
Upcoming topics
How to prepare a figure for publication.
What to do while attending a conference or a research seminar.
How to organize and store data and programs for the lab.
Conferences in the field. Conference on Dynamic Walking. American Society of Biomechanics. World Congress of Biomechanics. Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. IEEE ICRA. IEEE IROS. IEEE Humanoids. AMAM. ISPGR. ISEK. IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR). Society for Neuroscience. NIPS. Neural Control of Movement. Society for Experimental Biology.
Miscellany
R. McNeill Alexander's complete list of publications