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Neuromechanics Lab
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The lab uncovers the motor intelligence behind animal walking and applies it to robots.
AboutAbout the lab
Uncovering motor intelligence from the remarkable walking of living organisms
The Aoi Lab, part of the Neuromechanics Group, focuses on organisms that walk while adapting to a variety of environments, and studies how their motor intelligence works and how it can be applied.
The lab forms hypotheses from analyses of organisms' movements, models the neural, muscular, and skeletal systems, runs dynamic simulations, and analyzes them using dynamical systems theory.
In this way, the lab aims to clarify mathematically the mechanisms behind the excellent motor control and movement generation of living organisms.
The lab also turns these findings into engineering designs and develops robots that show excellent motor functions.
Key terms
- Kinematic synergy
- A coordinated structure hidden in the movements of multiple joints that can be described in a small number of dimensions.
- Muscle synergy
- A low-dimensional structure in which the activity of many muscles during walking is explained as a sum of a small number of activity patterns with different timings.
- Interlimb coordination
- The appropriate phase relationships among multiple legs during walking or running.
NewsLab news
A paper on a mathematical model of cheetah galloping was published in Bioinspiration & Biomimetics
A master's student received the SCI Student Presentation Award at SCI'26 of the Institute of Systems, Control and Information Engineers
A paper on the metamorphosis of passive walking was published in Nonlinear Dynamics
A fourth-year undergraduate student received the Mechanical Engineering Kai Award in the Mechanical Science Course
A master's student received the Excellent Research Encouragement Award at the 38th Autonomous Decentralized Systems Symposium
ResearchResearch themes
The lab aims to uncover the remarkable motor intelligence of living organisms and apply those findings to robots. The research is divided into movement analysis, mathematical modeling, and robot experiments, which are sometimes carried out in an integrated way depending on the project.
*Illustrative imageMeasuring movement to understand its mechanisms
The lab measures joint angles, electromyograms, ground reaction forces, and other data from humans and animals during movement, and uses mathematical methods to reveal the structures hidden in the data. It studies kinematic synergies, muscle synergies, and interlimb coordination, and considers the neural control systems behind them.
*Illustrative imageExploring the principles of walking with mathematical models
Using neuromusculoskeletal models that integrate the neural control system with the body's musculoskeletal system, as well as minimal, simple models, the lab runs dynamic simulations and analyzes them with dynamical systems theory. It aims to clarify how adaptive walking is formed and the essential mechanical principles behind it.
*Illustrative imageDeveloping walking robots
The lab turns the findings from movement analysis and mathematical modeling into engineering designs and develops robots that show excellent walking functions. It works on bipedal, quadrupedal, and multi-legged robots.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Aoi Lab consist of faculty, Invited Professors and Invited Associate Professors, project researchers, administrative assistants, and master's and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorShinya Aoi
- Associate ProfessorYo Kobayashi
- Assistant ProfessorTomoya Kamimura
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Svan M2- A quadruped robot” Manu amritanshu / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Measuring movement to understand its mechanisms: “Gait laboratory” D. Gordon E. Robertson / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Exploring the principles of walking with mathematical models: “ATRIAS Biped Breakdown” Grimesje / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Developing walking robots: “REEM-B humanoid robot” Facontidavide at English Wikipedia / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Thermal Engineering Lab): “Boundary-Layer-Transition” Herbert.Oertel / www.prof.oertel.de / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Fluid Mechanics Lab): “Magnetic turbulence” Giannandrea Inchingolo / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Materials Physics Lab): “Transmission electron microscope (Morgagni 268D) pl” Pleple2000 / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Solid Mechanics Lab): “Origami ball” Angie from Sawara, Chiba-ken, Japan / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
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