We report on our preliminary studies of a new controller for a two-link brachiatiog robot. Motivated by the pendulum-like motion of an ape's brachiation, we encode this task as the output of a“target dynamical system.”Numerical simulations indicate that the resulting controller solves a number of brachiation problems that we term the“ladder”, “swing up”and“rope”problems. Preliminary analysis provides some explanation for this success. We discuss a number of formal questions whose answers will be required to gain a full understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of this approach.