Publications
Welcome to my collection of robotics research publications. My work focuses on mechanically adaptive robotics, optimal control, actuator design, and the theory of human performance augmentation—pushing the boundaries of intelligent systems and automation. Through peer-reviewed articles, conference papers, and patents, I share insights into the challenges and breakthroughs driving robot autonomy and adaptive technology. Explore my latest research and discover how these innovations are shaping the future of robotics.
Exploiting variable physical damping in rapid movement tasks
A. Radulescu, M. Howard, D.J. Braun, and S. Vijayakumar, Exploiting variable physical damping in rapid movement tasks, IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, Kaohsiung, TWN, pp. 141–148, July 2012. Best Student Paper Award Finalist. Until now, design of variable physical impedance actuators (VIAs) has been…
Exploiting variable stiffness in explosive movement tasks
D.J. Braun, M. Howard, and S. Vijayakumar, Exploiting variable stiffness in explosive movement tasks, Robotics: Science and Systems, Los Angeles, USA, June/July 2011. It is widely recognised that compliant actuation is advantageous to robot control once high-performance, explosive tasks, such as throwing, hitting or jumping are considered.…
Constraint-based equilibrium and stiffness control of variable stiffness actuators
M. Howard, D.J. Braun, and S. Vijayakumar, Constraint-based equilibrium and stiffness control of variable stiffness actuators, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Shanghai, CN, pp. 5554–5560, May 2011. Considerable research effort has gone into the design of variable passive stiffness actuators (VSAs). A number of different…
A Control Approach for Actuated Dynamics Walking in Biped Robots
D.J. Braun, M. Goldfarb, A Control Approach for Actuated Dynamics Walking in Biped Robots, IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol. 25, no. 6, pp. 1292-1303, 2009. This paper presents an approach for the closed-loop control of a fully actuated biped robot that leverages its natural dynamics when walking.…
Elimination of Constrained Drift in the Numerical Simulation of Constrained Dynamical Systems
D.J. Braun, M. Goldfarb, Elimination of Constrained Drift in the Numerical Simulation of Constrained Dynamical Systems, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, vol. 198, no. 37-40, pp. 3151-3160, 2009. By means of the Udwadia–Kalaba approach we propose an explicit equation of constrained motion developed to simulate…
A Controller for Dynamic Walking in Bipedal Robots
D.J. Braun and M. Goldfarb, A controller for dynamic walking in bipedal robots, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, St. Louis, USA, pp. 2916–2921, October 2009. This paper presents an approach for the closed-loop control of actuated biped that allows natural looking and energy efficient…
Actuated Dynamic Walking in Biped Robots: Control Approach, Robot Design and Experimental Validation
D. J. Braun, J. E. Mitchell, and M. Goldfarb, Actuated dynamic walking in biped robots: Control approach, robot design and experimental validation, IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, Paris, FR, pp. 237–242, December 2009. This paper presents and experimentally demonstrates a control approach for actuated dynamic walking…
Adaptive steady-state stabilization for nonlinear dynamical systems
D.J. Braun, Adaptive steady-state stabilization for nonlinear dynamical systems, Physical Review E, vol. 78, no. 1, p. 016213, 2008. Reply to Comment on Adaptive steady-state stabilization for nonlinear dynamical systems, Physical Review E, vol. 81, no. 1, p. 038202, 2010. By means of LaSalle’s invariance principle, we propose…
On the Optimal Shape of a Compressed Rotating Rod with Shear and Extensibility
D.J. Braun, On the Optimal Shape of Compressed Rotating Rod with Shear and Extensibility, International Journal of Non-linear Mechanics, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 131–139, 2008. In this paper, the optimal shape of a compressed rotating rod which maintains stability against buckling is presented. In the rod…
The Strongest Rotating Rod
T. M. Atanackovic and D.J. Braun, The strongest rotating rod, International Journal of Non-linear Mechanics, vol. 40, pp. 747–754, 2005. By using the Rayleigh quotient, we present the variational formulation for the strongest rotating rod stable against buckling. This variational formulation is converted to fifth-order singular non-linear…