Decoding how salamanders walk

Date:
August 2, 2021
Source:
Tohoku University
Summary:
Salamanders can navigate complex and unstructured environments
thanks to their impressive body-limb coordination. Researchers
have built a model that mimics a salamander's walk with the hope
it aids the development of agile and adaptive robots that can
flexibly change their body-limb coordination.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Researchers at Tohoku University and the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology in Lausanne, with the support of the Human Frontier Science
Program, have decoded the flexible motor control mechanisms underlying salamander walking.


========================================================================== Their findings were published in the journal Frontiers in Neurorobotics
on July 30, 2021.

Animals with four feet can navigate complex, unpredictable, and
unstructured environments. The impressive ability is thanks to their
body-limb coordination.

The salamander is an excellent specimen for studying body-limb
coordination mechanisms. It is an amphibian that uses four legs and walks
by swaying itself from left to right in a motion known as undulation.

Their nervous system is simpler than those of mammals, and they change
their walking pattern according to the speed at which they are moving.

To decode the salamander's movement, researchers led by Professor Akio
Ishiguro of the Research Institute of Electrical Communication at Tohoku University modeled the salamander's nervous system mathematically and physically simulated the model.

In making the model, the researchers hypothesized that the legs and
the body are controlled to support other motions by sharing sensory information. They then reproduced the speed-dependent gait transitions
of salamanders through computer simulations.

"We hope this finding provides insights into the essential mechanism
behind the adaptive and versatile locomotion of animals," said Ishiguro.

The researchers are confident their discovery will aid the development
of robots that can move with high agility and adaptability by flexibly
changing body-limb coordination patterns.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Tohoku_University. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Shura Suzuki, Takeshi Kano, Auke J. Ijspeert, Akio
Ishiguro. Spontaneous
Gait Transitions of Sprawling Quadruped Locomotion by Sensory-Driven
Body-Limb Coordination Mechanisms. Frontiers in Neurorobotics,
2021; 15 DOI: 10.3389/fnbot.2021.645731 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210802140201.htm

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