Avik De

I am currently a postdoc at Harvard SEAS and the Wyss Institute co-advised by Rob Wood and Scott Kuindersma. I received my PhD in Sep 2017, at the GRASP laboratory (Kodlab) in the University of Pennsylvania advised by Dan Koditschek. I graduated with a BS/MS in Mechanical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 2010 (LIMBS lab under Noah Cowan), during which I performed an empirical study on how/when human beings inject feedback to stabilize a 1-dimensional paddle juggling task. Bio-inspiration remains a key research interest, and during my PhD, I switched my efforts into modular/compositional control of dynamic locomotion in a way that generalizes across platforms (quadruped, tailed biped, ...) and behaviors (hopping, running, ...), as well as the design of dynamic locomotor systems.

I co-founded Ghost Robotics in 2016 and function as CTO, commercializing research that led to the creation of a family of power-dense direct-drive legged robots with high actuation bandwidth and proprioceptive sensing capabilities.

I have in part created curriculum for two online courses: "Robotics: Mobility", and "Robotics: Capstone" on coursera.  

Quick links:

• CV
• Academic: Research projects | Teaching | Awards | Invited talks | Abstracts and posters | Publications
• Media: Videos | Media coverage
• Personal: Personal website | Twitter

Research Areas and Projects

• Steady-state behaviors ("gaits") using parallel composition -- hybrid averaging, Minitaur virtual bipedal gaits, Jerboa hopping
• Transitional behaviors ("leaps") -- Jerboa leaping, Jerboa rolling
• Design -- direct-drive robots, motor selection, Minitaur, Jerboa, Delta hopper
• Sensorimotor loops (servoing) -- wall following, active visual servoing
• Bayesian estimation -- approximate Bayesian estimation

Past Projects

• Juggling -- paddle juggling
• Lateral perturbation recovery by a RHex robot (ESE650 final project, Sp 2012)
• Applications of homology to processing laser data (with Qian Wu, Su 2011)
• Finding optimal configuration space paths by variation of curves (MEAM620 final project, Sp 2011)

Teaching

• Robotics: Mobility -- created/delivered roughly 25% of the curriculum
• Robotics: Capstone -- created/delivered roughly 50% of the curriculum
• TA for ESE 201, ESE 512 (both Dynamical systems courses)

Awards & Honors

• James McDonnell Postdoctoral Fellowship winner
• RAS Best Reviewer Award (presented at ICRA 2018)
• UPenn ESE Best Doctoral Dissertation Award for the 2017-2018 Academic Year
• For older awards see CV

Selected Videos

Minitaur:

Jerboa:

Videos featuring my gaits co-produced by Ghost Robotics:

New videos often shared to https://twitter.com/Ghost_Robotics

Media Coverage

(Under construction)

Coverage for Ghost Robotics:

• Daily Show
• Many more

Invited Talks (excluding conference talks)

• Detecting and controlling contact for legged locomotion -- RSS 2020 workshop on contact
• Power-efficient perception-aware quadrupedal control at Ghost Robotics -- ICRA 2020 legged workshop
• A Modern Perspective from “Dual Citizenship” in Academia and Industry -- GRASP lab 40th celebration
• Optimal Control Synthesis via Compositions of Reduced-Order Models (Templates) -- ACC 2019 legged workshop
• Connecting Today’s Applications for Commercial Legged Robots to their Design and Control -- ICRA 2019 legged workshop -- Slides
• Template Composition for Synthesis of New Behaviors from Simpler Constituents -- IROS 2018 template-based control workshop
• Tail design and control for a tail- and hip-energized and -stabilized bipedal hopping robot -- RSS 2018 workshop on "Unusual appendages: novel, multi-modal, or multi-functional uses for limbs, tails, and other body parts"
• Toward robust locomotion subject to variations in robot scale, mass, payload, and environmental conditions -- ICRA 2018 multilegged robots workshop
• Platform design using dynamic motor, electronics, and transmission models -- ICRA 2018 actuator workshop
• Modular hopping and running (for biologists and engineers) -- UC Berkeley biomechanics seminar -- Oct 24, 2017
• Modular hopping and running -- Boston University Robotics Lab -- Oct 6, 2017
• Thesis Defense "Modular Hopping and Running via Parallel Composition" -- Thesis defense -- Sep 20, 2017
• CMU bipedal seminar -- Feb 17, 2017
• Mechanically Simple, Behaviorally Versatile Quadrupeds -- TRI tech talk (with Gavin Kenneally) -- Feb 10, 2017
• Mechanically Simple, Behaviorally Versatile Quadrupeds -- Google tech talk (with Gavin Kenneally) -- Feb 7, 2017
• Anchored Behaviors from Template Compositions -- UW seminar -- Feb 3, 2017
• Sequential, Parallel and Symbolic Compositions -- UPenn ESE PhD Colloquium -- Fall 2015
• Anchor synthesis via template composition -- AMAM 2015
• UPenn GRASP industry day -- April 2015
• Parallel Composition of Templates for Tail-Energized Planar Hopping -- MIT Biomimetic Robotics Lab -- Oct 2014

Abstracts and Posters

• A. De and D. E. Koditschek, “Hybrid averaging shows that within-stance symmetry helps mitigate coupling interactions between degrees of freedom in a sagittal 2DOF monoped and 3DOF biped,” Dynamic Walking 2017.
• A. De and D. E. Koditschek, “Reactive coordination: stabilizing common quadrupedal gaits without CPGs,” Sixth Annual Winter Workshop on Neuromechanics and Dynamics of Locomotion, Tulane University - New Orleans, Louisiana, January 19 – 20, 2017.
• G. Kenneally, A. De and D. E. Koditschek, “Design Principles for a Family of Direct-Drive Legged Robots,” RSS Workshop on Miniature Legged Robots, July, 2015.
• G. J. Wenger, A. De and D. E. Koditschek, “Roll Stabilization on a Tailed Biped,” RSS workshop on robotic uses for tails, July, 2015.
• A. De, A. M. Johnson and D. E. Koditschek, “Planar Hopping with a Leg and a Tail,” Dynamic Walking, June, 2014.