Monica Daley from the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, will be the featured speaker at a School of Life Sciences seminar. Her talk is titled, Principles of bipedal locomotion: Sensorimotor and mechanical factors for stability and agility.

Historically, most studies of locomotion focused on steady gait-constant velocity movement over uniform, level terrain. Yet, animal movement in natural environments is rarely steady. Daley uses perturbation experiments and theoretical modeling to understand the sensorimotor and mechanical factors that influence how bipedal animals achieve robustly stable and agile locomotion. The key challenge for animal locomotor stability is that locomotor dynamics are critically sensitive to unpredictable variation in foot-ground contact conditions, yet inherent sensorimotor delays limit response times. Our research has revealed remarkably simple control strategies used by ground birds and humans to overcome these challenges, through effective integration of physical dynamics and neural control.

Daley will discuss how this research has provided insight into

1. Integration of feedback and feedforward control for stability
2. Shifts in control strategies with body size
3. Applications in the bio-bipedal robot, ATRIAS