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Locomotory Behavior of Water Striders with Amputated Legs

The stability of the body during locomotion is a fundamental requirement for walking animals. The mechanisms that coordinate leg movement patterns are even more complex at water–air interfaces. Water striders are agile creatures on the water surface, but they can be vulnerable to leg damage, which c...

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Autores principales: Meshkani, Javad, Rajabi, Hamed, Kovalev, Alexander, Gorb, Stanislav N.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10669063/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37999165
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics8070524
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author Meshkani, Javad
Rajabi, Hamed
Kovalev, Alexander
Gorb, Stanislav N.
author_facet Meshkani, Javad
Rajabi, Hamed
Kovalev, Alexander
Gorb, Stanislav N.
author_sort Meshkani, Javad
collection PubMed
description The stability of the body during locomotion is a fundamental requirement for walking animals. The mechanisms that coordinate leg movement patterns are even more complex at water–air interfaces. Water striders are agile creatures on the water surface, but they can be vulnerable to leg damage, which can impair their movement. One can assume the presence of certain compensatory biomechanical factors that are involved in the maintenance of postural balance lost after an amputation. Here, we studied changes in load distribution among the legs and assessed the effects of amputation on the locomotory behavior and postural defects that may increase the risk of locomotion failure. Apparently, amputees recover a stable posture by applying leg position modifications (e.g., widening the stance) and by load redistribution to the remaining legs. Water striders showed steering failure after amputation in all cases. Amputations affected locomotion by (1) altering motion features (e.g., shorter swing duration of midlegs), (2) functional constraints on legs, (3) shorter travelled distances, and (4) stronger deviations in the locomotion path. The legs functionally interact with each other, and removal of one leg has detrimental effects on the others. This research may assist the bioinspired design of aquatic robots.
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spelling pubmed-106690632023-11-04 Locomotory Behavior of Water Striders with Amputated Legs Meshkani, Javad Rajabi, Hamed Kovalev, Alexander Gorb, Stanislav N. Biomimetics (Basel) Article The stability of the body during locomotion is a fundamental requirement for walking animals. The mechanisms that coordinate leg movement patterns are even more complex at water–air interfaces. Water striders are agile creatures on the water surface, but they can be vulnerable to leg damage, which can impair their movement. One can assume the presence of certain compensatory biomechanical factors that are involved in the maintenance of postural balance lost after an amputation. Here, we studied changes in load distribution among the legs and assessed the effects of amputation on the locomotory behavior and postural defects that may increase the risk of locomotion failure. Apparently, amputees recover a stable posture by applying leg position modifications (e.g., widening the stance) and by load redistribution to the remaining legs. Water striders showed steering failure after amputation in all cases. Amputations affected locomotion by (1) altering motion features (e.g., shorter swing duration of midlegs), (2) functional constraints on legs, (3) shorter travelled distances, and (4) stronger deviations in the locomotion path. The legs functionally interact with each other, and removal of one leg has detrimental effects on the others. This research may assist the bioinspired design of aquatic robots. MDPI 2023-11-04 /pmc/articles/PMC10669063/ /pubmed/37999165 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics8070524 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Meshkani, Javad
Rajabi, Hamed
Kovalev, Alexander
Gorb, Stanislav N.
Locomotory Behavior of Water Striders with Amputated Legs
title Locomotory Behavior of Water Striders with Amputated Legs
title_full Locomotory Behavior of Water Striders with Amputated Legs
title_fullStr Locomotory Behavior of Water Striders with Amputated Legs
title_full_unstemmed Locomotory Behavior of Water Striders with Amputated Legs
title_short Locomotory Behavior of Water Striders with Amputated Legs
title_sort locomotory behavior of water striders with amputated legs
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10669063/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37999165
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics8070524
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