Papers
29
Total Citations
2,818
H-Index
17
About
E. R. Westervelt is a leading figure in the dynamics and control of bipedal robotic locomotion, whose work has fundamentally shaped how researchers approach the challenge of making robots walk and run stably. His most celebrated contribution is the comprehensive textbook *Feedback Control of Dynamic Bipedal Robot Locomotion* (2010), which garnered over 1,090 citations and remains a landmark reference for treating bipedal mechanics as the hybrid dynamical system it truly is. A cornerstone of his experimental work is RABBIT, a seven-degree-of-freedom bipedal robot platform he helped design and study, which enabled rigorous real-world validation of theoretical control frameworks and accumulated over 530 citations. Westervelt's research introduced and refined the concept of virtual constraints—a powerful tool for systematically designing controllers that provably guarantee asymptotically stable walking and running in underactuated planar robots—demonstrated both computationally and experimentally across multiple studies. His interdisciplinary reach extended to biomechanics, where he developed low-dimensional sagittal-plane models of human walking using robotics-inspired methods. Collectively, his body of work bridges abstract control theory with physical implementation, offering students and researchers a rigorous yet practical foundation for advancing legged robotics.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Feedback Control of Dynamic Bipedal Robot Locomotion1,093 citations · 2010
- 2RABBIT: a testbed for advanced control theory538 citations · 2003
- 3Stable walking of a 7-dof biped robot264 citations · 2003
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- 6Switching and pi control of walking motions of planar biped walkers80 citations · 2003
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- 9Low-Dimensional Sagittal Plane Model of Normal Human Walking54 citations · 2008
- 10Robot Modeling and Control [Book Review]53 citations · 2006