adfa, p. 1, 2011. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011 Whole-body Motion in Humans and Humanoids

Abstract. Traditional industrial applications involve robots with limited mobili-ty. Consequently, interaction (e.g. manipulation) was treated separately from whole-body posture (e.g. balancing), assuming the robot firmly connected to the ground. Foreseen applications involve robots with augmented autonomy and physical mobility. Within this novel context, physical interaction influences stability and balance. To allow robots to surpass barriers between interaction and posture control, forthcoming robotic research needs to investigate the prin-ciples governing whole-body motion and coordination with contact dynamics. There is a need to investigate the principles of motion and coordination of phys-ical interaction, including the aspects related to unpredictability. Recent devel-opments in compliant actuation and touch sensing allow safe and robust physi-cal interaction from unexpected contact including humans. The next advance