Shane Rozen-Levy Defends Doctoral Dissertation

Congratulations Dr. Shane Rozen-Levy, who successfully defended his doctoral dissertation, “No Watts Wasted: Spines and Tails for Agile Legged Locomotion,” under the advisory of Daniel Koditschek, graduate group member of MEAM and Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering.

The thesis explores enhancing the agility of legged robots by optimizing power usage. It introduces two strategies: optimizing hip actuation in SLIP-like robots and designing high-power robots with fewer actuators, often relocating them to the tail or spine. Jerboa 3.0, a tailed bipedal robot, exemplifies these principles, showcasing sustained hopping and recovery capabilities. Read the abstract.

Dr. Rozen-Levy will join Boston Dynamics as a Software Engineer for the Atlas team.