Movement Lab
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. Webpage for the paper + PDF Downloads.
- 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. Webpage for the paper + PDF Downloads.
- 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. PDF
- Matthew Handford and Manoj Srinivasan. Robotic lower limb prosthesis design through simultaneous computer optimizations of human and prosthesis costs. Article PDF + Supplementary Information, 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. Link to journal article. Link to Data (Dryad). Article PDF+Supplementary Appendix.
- 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. Link to journal article. PDF (preprint article+supplementary information).
- 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. Link to journal article. Link to Data (Dryad). Article PDF+Supplementary Information.
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. Journal Link.
Author Generated PDF (pre-final version). See media coverage.
- Manoj Srinivasan. Fifteen observations on the structure of energy minimizing gaits in many simple biped models. J. Royal Society Interface, PDF with supplementary information, 8, 74-98, 2011. Journal link
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?"
Here's a beautiful essay on how to write an article containing mathematics. The intended audience of this essay was MIT undergrads, but the lessons are broadly applicable. The part about language on pages 3-8 is especially compelling.
How to give a good talk or presentation
How to give a good research talk, by Simon Peyton Jones. HTML.
Here's a variant bt Stephanie Weirich
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. Here's one on MATLAB programming style guidelines, in which the author quotes regarding variable naming, "A rose by any other name confuses the issue."
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. Here are all the ten simple rule essays in a single PDF file.
Why maintain a lab notebook and how. 1, 2, 3.
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