Dynamic Walking Workshop June 2013

The OpenSim team is running a workshop for the Dynamic Walking 2013 Annual meeting at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

This workshop will cover the development and simulation of a passive dynamic walker in OpenSim.  Participants will be introduced to the OpenSim tools in both the standalone GUI and the new Matlab scripting tools.  The workshop will culminate in a challenge where the workshop participants will aim to maximize walking distance over increasingly challenging terrain. No prior OpenSim experience is necessary.

This wiki pages directs the participants to all of the materials and instructions for the workshop.

Preparing for the workshop

Participants should either bring a PC laptop with OpenSim installed, or be prepared to team up with other participants.  

Here are installation instructions.

Matlab

There is a particularly exciting part of the tutorial which requires that users have Matlab installed. We support both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Matlab, though the use of 64-bit Matlab requires that you follow some additional steps. See this page for Matlab instructions. It is preferable that you use 32-bit Matlab. Note that 32-bit and 64-bit Matlab can be installed side by side, so if you use 64-bit Matlab you may consider installing 32-bit Matlab as well before you arrive.

Hopefully you will be able to set up your environment properly before arrive, but we'll be glad to help you with these steps during the workshop.

Design Challenge

At the end of the workshop, we will have a small presentation of the walking model challenge entries. 

The challenge categories are:

Best Walking Gait

• The model that moves the furthest through the obstacle course (based on pelvis location at touchdown of the leading leg at the last complete step) will be the winner.  If there is a relative tie, or if multiple models succesfully complete the course, the winner will be selected by audience vote. 
• The model should be complete passive.
• The model must not have a flight phase.  The sum of the contact forces will be checked (it's okay to have very short violations).

Best Innovation

• The winner will be selected by audience vote.
• There are no restrictions on the model.  (Add extra legs, muscles, whatever it takes to get down the course! Think outside the box!)
• The model must spend a significant portion of the the time on the ground.

Best Blooper

• Self-explanatory! The winner will be selected by audience vote.
  
  

To enter the contest, send an email to Chris Dembia with:

• subject line "DW2013: <name-of-your-team>",
• for each category you're entering:
  
  • your model file, named as "<name-of-your-team>_<category>.osim",
  • a link to a YouTube video showing your model in action (that is, upload a video to YouTube first).

The videos will be uploaded to this page, where the other contestants can see and vote on them.

Helpful Examples and Resources

TODO

Surveys

• Workshop Feedback: We hope you'll find a moment at the end of the workshop to fill out our feedback form. There are only 3 required questions, so it should be quick!

• Design Challenge Voting: When everyone has submitted their contest entries, you'll come here to vote for the winners.

Staff

• Ajay Seth
• Dan Jacobs
• Chris Dembia
• Scott Delp