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Rieser JM, Chong B, Gong C, Astley HC, Schiebel PE, Diaz K, Pierce CJ, Lu H, Hatton RL, Choset H, Goldman DI. Geometric phase predicts locomotion performance in undulating living systems across scales. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2320517121. [PMID: 38848301 PMCID: PMC11181092 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2320517121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2023] [Accepted: 04/02/2024] [Indexed: 06/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Self-propelling organisms locomote via generation of patterns of self-deformation. Despite the diversity of body plans, internal actuation schemes and environments in limbless vertebrates and invertebrates, such organisms often use similar traveling waves of axial body bending for movement. Delineating how self-deformation parameters lead to locomotor performance (e.g. speed, energy, turning capabilities) remains challenging. We show that a geometric framework, replacing laborious calculation with a diagrammatic scheme, is well-suited to discovery and comparison of effective patterns of wave dynamics in diverse living systems. We focus on a regime of undulatory locomotion, that of highly damped environments, which is applicable not only to small organisms in viscous fluids, but also larger animals in frictional fluids (sand) and on frictional ground. We find that the traveling wave dynamics used by mm-scale nematode worms and cm-scale desert dwelling snakes and lizards can be described by time series of weights associated with two principal modes. The approximately circular closed path trajectories of mode weights in a self-deformation space enclose near-maximal surface integral (geometric phase) for organisms spanning two decades in body length. We hypothesize that such trajectories are targets of control (which we refer to as "serpenoid templates"). Further, the geometric approach reveals how seemingly complex behaviors such as turning in worms and sidewinding snakes can be described as modulations of templates. Thus, the use of differential geometry in the locomotion of living systems generates a common description of locomotion across taxa and provides hypotheses for neuromechanical control schemes at lower levels of organization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer M. Rieser
- School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA30332
- Department of Physics, Emory University, Atlanta, GA30322
| | - Baxi Chong
- School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA30332
| | | | | | - Perrin E. Schiebel
- Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT59717
| | - Kelimar Diaz
- Physics Department, Oglethorpe University, Brookhaven, GA, 202919
| | | | - Hang Lu
- School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA30332
| | - Ross L. Hatton
- Collaborative Robotics and Intelligent Systems Institute (CoRIS), Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR97331
| | - Howie Choset
- Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA15213
| | - Daniel I. Goldman
- School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA30332
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Tingle JL, Sherman BM, Garland T. Locomotor kinematics on sand versus vinyl flooring in the sidewinder rattlesnake Crotalus cerastes. Biol Open 2023; 12:bio060146. [PMID: 37909760 PMCID: PMC10660788 DOI: 10.1242/bio.060146] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2023] [Accepted: 10/23/2023] [Indexed: 11/03/2023] Open
Abstract
For terrestrial locomotion of animals and machines, physical characteristics of the substrate can strongly impact kinematics and performance. Snakes are an especially interesting system for studying substrate effects because their gait depends more on the environment than on their speed. We tested sidewinder rattlesnakes (Crotalus cerastes) on two surfaces: sand collected from their natural environment and vinyl tile flooring, an artificial surface often used to elicit sidewinding in laboratory settings. Of ten kinematic variables examined, two differed significantly between the substrates: the body's waveform had an average of ∼17% longer wavelength on vinyl flooring (measured in body lengths), and snakes lifted their bodies an average of ∼40% higher on sand (measured in body lengths). Sidewinding may also differ among substrates in ways we did not measure (e.g. ground reaction forces and energetics), leaving open clear directions for future study.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Theodore Garland
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, University of California, Riverside 92521, USA
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Abstract
We optimize three-dimensional snake kinematics for locomotor efficiency. We assume a general space-curve representation of the snake backbone with small-to-moderate lifting off the ground and negligible body inertia. The cost of locomotion includes work against friction and internal viscous dissipation. When restricted to planar kinematics, our population-based optimization method finds the same types of optima as a previous Newton-based method. With lifting, a few types of optimal motions prevail. We have an s-shaped body with alternating lifting of the middle and ends at small-to-moderate transverse friction. With large transverse friction, curling and sliding motions are typical at small viscous dissipation, replaced by large-amplitude bending at large viscous dissipation. With small viscous dissipation, we find local optima that resemble sidewinding motions across friction coefficient space. They are always suboptimal to alternating lifting motions, with average input power 10–100% higher.
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Affiliation(s)
- S. Alben
- Department of Mathematics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
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Chong B, O Aydin Y, Rieser JM, Sartoretti G, Wang T, Whitman J, Kaba A, Aydin E, McFarland C, Diaz Cruz K, Rankin JW, Michel KB, Nicieza A, Hutchinson JR, Choset H, Goldman DI. A general locomotion control framework for multi-legged locomotors. BIOINSPIRATION & BIOMIMETICS 2022; 17:046015. [PMID: 35533656 DOI: 10.1088/1748-3190/ac6e1b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2022] [Accepted: 05/09/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Serially connected robots are promising candidates for performing tasks in confined spaces such as search and rescue in large-scale disasters. Such robots are typically limbless, and we hypothesize that the addition of limbs could improve mobility. However, a challenge in designing and controlling such devices lies in the coordination of high-dimensional redundant modules in a way that improves mobility. Here we develop a general framework to discover templates to control serially connected multi-legged robots. Specifically, we combine two approaches to build a general shape control scheme which can provide baseline patterns of self-deformation ('gaits') for effective locomotion in diverse robot morphologies. First, we take inspiration from a dimensionality reduction and a biological gait classification scheme to generate cyclic patterns of body deformation and foot lifting/lowering, which facilitate the generation of arbitrary substrate contact patterns. Second, we extend geometric mechanics, which was originally introduced to study swimming at low Reynolds numbers, to frictional environments, allowing the identification of optimal body-leg coordination in this common terradynamic regime. Our scheme allows the development of effective gaits on flat terrain with diverse numbers of limbs (4, 6, 16, and even 0 limbs) and backbone actuation. By properly coordinating the body undulation and leg placement, our framework combines the advantages of both limbless robots (modularity and narrow profile) and legged robots (mobility). Our framework can provide general control schemes for the rapid deployment of general multi-legged robots, paving the way toward machines that can traverse complex environments. In addition, we show that our framework can also offer insights into body-leg coordination in living systems, such as salamanders and centipedes, from a biomechanical perspective.
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Affiliation(s)
- Baxi Chong
- Georgia Institute of Technology, North Ave NW, Atlanta, GA 30332, United States of America
| | - Yasemin O Aydin
- University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, United States of America
| | - Jennifer M Rieser
- Emory University, 201 Dowman Dr, Atlanta, GA 30322, United States of America
| | | | - Tianyu Wang
- Georgia Institute of Technology, North Ave NW, Atlanta, GA 30332, United States of America
| | - Julian Whitman
- Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States of America
| | - Abdul Kaba
- Morehouse College, 830 Westview Dr SW, Atlanta, GA 30314, United States of America
| | - Enes Aydin
- University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, United States of America
| | - Ciera McFarland
- University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, United States of America
| | - Kelimar Diaz Cruz
- Georgia Institute of Technology, North Ave NW, Atlanta, GA 30332, United States of America
| | - Jeffery W Rankin
- Rancho Research Institute, 7601 Imperial Hwy, Downey, CA 90242, United States of America
| | - Krijn B Michel
- Royal Veterinary College, 4 Royal College St, London NW1 0TU, United Kingdom
| | - Alfredo Nicieza
- Biodiversity Research Institute (IMIB), University of Oviedo-Principality of Asturias-CSIC, 33600 Mieres, Spain
| | - John R Hutchinson
- Royal Veterinary College, 4 Royal College St, London NW1 0TU, United Kingdom
| | - Howie Choset
- Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States of America
| | - Daniel I Goldman
- Georgia Institute of Technology, North Ave NW, Atlanta, GA 30332, United States of America
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Tingle JL, Sherman BM, Garland T. Scaling and relations of morphology with locomotor kinematics in the sidewinder rattlesnake Crotalus cerastes. J Exp Biol 2022; 225:jeb243817. [PMID: 35438776 PMCID: PMC9080748 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.243817] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2021] [Accepted: 03/09/2022] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
The movement of limbless terrestrial animals differs fundamentally from that of limbed animals, yet few scaling studies of their locomotor kinematics and morphology are available. We examined scaling and relations of morphology and locomotion in sidewinder rattlesnakes (Crotalus cerastes). During sidewinding locomotion, a snake lifts sections of its body up and forward while other sections maintain static ground contact. We used high-speed video to quantify whole-animal speed and acceleration; the height to which body sections are lifted; and the frequency, wavelength, amplitude and skew angle (degree of tilting) of the body wave. Kinematic variables were not sexually dimorphic, and most did not deviate from isometry, except wave amplitude. Larger sidewinders were not faster, contrary to many results from limbed terrestrial animals. Free from the need to maintain dynamic similarity (because their locomotion is dominated by friction rather than inertia), limbless species may have greater freedom to modulate speed independently of body size. Path analysis supported: (1) a hypothesized relationship between body width and wavelength, indicating that stouter sidewinders form looser curves; (2) a strong relationship between cycle frequency and whole-animal speed; and (3) weaker effects of wavelength (positive) and amplitude (negative) on speed. We suggest that sidewinding snakes may face a limit on stride length (to which amplitude and wavelength both contribute), beyond which they sacrifice stability. Thus, increasing frequency may be the best way to increase speed. Finally, frequency and skew angle were correlated, a result that deserves future study from the standpoint of both kinematics and physiology.
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Takanashi T, Nakajima M, Takemori T, Tanaka M. Obstacle-Aided Locomotion of a Snake Robot Using Piecewise Helixes. IEEE Robot Autom Lett 2022. [DOI: 10.1109/lra.2022.3194689] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Takuro Takanashi
- Department of Mechanical and Intelligent Systems Engineering, University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Mizuki Nakajima
- Department of Mechanical and Intelligent Systems Engineering, University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Tatsuya Takemori
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Motoyasu Tanaka
- Department of Mechanical and Intelligent Systems Engineering, University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan
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