Papers
7
Total Citations
1,032
H-Index
7
About
John R. Rebula is a leading researcher in legged locomotion, whose work has fundamentally advanced how robots maintain balance and recover from disturbances. His primary research areas include capturability theory, push recovery, and robust control for bipedal and quadrupedal robots. Rebula’s most influential contribution is the development of capturability-based analysis—a framework that defines a legged system’s ability to come to a stop without falling by taking a limited number of steps. This concept, detailed in his two-part 2012 paper (479 and 263 citations), has become a cornerstone of dynamic walking control. He also pioneered the use of Capture Points for humanoid push recovery, enabling robots to predict where to step after a disturbance (79 citations). Earlier, Rebula contributed to the LittleDog quadruped controller for rough terrain (162 citations) and helped develop the Yobotics-IHMC lower body humanoid, a 12-degree-of-freedom robot with series elastic actuators. His work bridges theory and practice, influencing both humanoid and quadrupedal platforms. With over 1,000 total citations, Rebula’s research remains essential for students and engineers working on bipedal stability, reactive stepping, and locomotion in unstructured environments.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2
- 3A Controller for the LittleDog Quadruped Walking on Rough Terrain162 citations · 2007
- 4Learning Capture Points for humanoid push recovery79 citations · 2007
- 5The Yobotics-IHMC Lower Body Humanoid Robot21 citations · 2009
- 6Learning Capture Points for Bipedal Push Recovery15 citations · 2008
- 7A Robustness Analysis of Inverse Optimal Control of Bipedal Walking13 citations · 2019