Complexity in motion

Abstract

In the last few years a lot of works have been done in the field of motor control and in motion analysis. Several different hypotheses have been described and reviewed to understand living beings on motor coordination. What is commonly referred to, as motor control is indeed an articulated problem that is, at least from a robotic perspective, often more suitably divided in: sensing (perception, cognition), deliberation, planning, kinematic control and dynamic control. Through the pages of this work, several different problems related to motion control, to living beings motion and to its robotic counterpart will be addressed. The strong underling motif of all the proposed algorithms and architectures (both software and hardware) is the presence of a real environment interaction. From reflexes to motion planning, from architecture definition to smart sensor design and from kinematic modelling of the human body to the action-perception loop implementation, this thesis intends to be a first gatherer of information and ideas in this interesting and complex field.