Title:
Tracked data for Chionactis occipitalis through a post array
Tracked data for Chionactis occipitalis through a post array
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Author(s)
Schiebel, Perrin E.
Rieser, Jennifer M.
Hubbard, Alex M.
Chen, Lillian
Rocklin, D. Zeb
Goldman, Daniel I.
Rieser, Jennifer M.
Hubbard, Alex M.
Chen, Lillian
Rocklin, D. Zeb
Goldman, Daniel I.
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Abstract
Limbless animals like snakes inhabit most terrestrial environments, generating thrust to overcome drag on the elongate body via contacts with heterogeneities. The complex body postures of some snakes and the unknown physics of most terrestrial materials frustrates understanding of strategies for effective locomotion. As a result, little is known about how limbless animals contend with unplanned obstacle contacts. We studied a desert snake, Chionactis occipitalis, which uses a stereotyped head-to-tail traveling wave to move quickly on homogeneous sand. In laboratory experiments, we challenged snakes to move across a uniform substrate and through a regular array of force sensitive posts. The snakes were reoriented by the array in a manner reminiscent of the matter-wave diffraction of subatomic particles. Force patterns indicated the animals did not change their self-deformation pattern to either avoid or grab the posts. A model using open-loop control incorporating previously described snake muscle activation patterns and body-buckling dynamics reproduced the observed patterns, suggesting a similar control strategy may be used by the animals. Our results reveal how passive dynamics can benefit limbless locomotors by allowing robust transit in heterogeneous environments with minimal sensing.
Sponsor
NSF Grants PoLS PHY-1205878, PHY-1150760, and CMMI-1361778;
Army Research Office Grant W911NF-11-1-0514;
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Young Faculty Award;
US Department of Defense, National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship 32 CFR 168a (P.E.S.);
Georgia Tech Southeast Center for Mathematics and Biology (P.E.S.);
Dunn Family Professorship (D.I.G.)
Date Issued
2019-01-25
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