In Italy, biomechanics research and the analysis of human and animal movement have had a very long history, beginning with the exceptional pioneering work of Leonardo da Vinci. In 1489, da Vinci began investigating human anatomy, including an examination of human tendons, muscles, and the skeletal system. He continued this line of inquiry later in life, identifying what he called -the four powers-movement, weight, force, and percussion-and how he thought they worked in the human body. His approach, by the way, was very modern-analyzing nature through anatomy, developing models for interpretation, and transferring this knowledge to bio-inspired machines. © 2010-2012 IEEE.