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Dynamics and stability of directional jumps in the desert locust

Locusts are known for their ability to jump large distances to avoid predation. The jump also serves to launch the adult locust into the air in order to initiate flight. Various aspects of this important behavior have been studied extensively, from muscle physiology and biomechanics, to the energy s...

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Autores principales: Gvirsman, Omer, Kosa, Gabor, Ayali, Amir
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5045875/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27703846
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2481
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author Gvirsman, Omer
Kosa, Gabor
Ayali, Amir
author_facet Gvirsman, Omer
Kosa, Gabor
Ayali, Amir
author_sort Gvirsman, Omer
collection PubMed
description Locusts are known for their ability to jump large distances to avoid predation. The jump also serves to launch the adult locust into the air in order to initiate flight. Various aspects of this important behavior have been studied extensively, from muscle physiology and biomechanics, to the energy storage systems involved in powering the jump, and more. Less well understood are the mechanisms participating in control of the jump trajectory. Here we utilise video monitoring and careful analysis of experimental directional jumps by adult desert locusts, together with dynamic computer simulation, in order to understand how the locusts control the direction and elevation of the jump, the residual angular velocities resulting from the jump and the timing of flapping-flight initiation. Our study confirms and expands early findings regarding the instrumental role of the initial body position and orientation. Both real-jump video analysis and simulations based on our expanded dynamical model demonstrate that the initial body coordinates of position (relative to the hind-legs ground-contact points) are dominant in predicting the jumps’ azimuth and elevation angles. We also report a strong linear correlation between the jumps’ pitch-angular-velocity and flight initiation timing, such that head downwards rotations lead to earlier wing opening. In addition to offering important insights into the bio-mechanical principles of locust jumping and flight initiation, the findings from this study will be used in designing future prototypes of a bio-inspired miniature jumping robot that will be employed in animal behaviour studies and environmental monitoring applications.
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spelling pubmed-50458752016-10-04 Dynamics and stability of directional jumps in the desert locust Gvirsman, Omer Kosa, Gabor Ayali, Amir PeerJ Animal Behavior Locusts are known for their ability to jump large distances to avoid predation. The jump also serves to launch the adult locust into the air in order to initiate flight. Various aspects of this important behavior have been studied extensively, from muscle physiology and biomechanics, to the energy storage systems involved in powering the jump, and more. Less well understood are the mechanisms participating in control of the jump trajectory. Here we utilise video monitoring and careful analysis of experimental directional jumps by adult desert locusts, together with dynamic computer simulation, in order to understand how the locusts control the direction and elevation of the jump, the residual angular velocities resulting from the jump and the timing of flapping-flight initiation. Our study confirms and expands early findings regarding the instrumental role of the initial body position and orientation. Both real-jump video analysis and simulations based on our expanded dynamical model demonstrate that the initial body coordinates of position (relative to the hind-legs ground-contact points) are dominant in predicting the jumps’ azimuth and elevation angles. We also report a strong linear correlation between the jumps’ pitch-angular-velocity and flight initiation timing, such that head downwards rotations lead to earlier wing opening. In addition to offering important insights into the bio-mechanical principles of locust jumping and flight initiation, the findings from this study will be used in designing future prototypes of a bio-inspired miniature jumping robot that will be employed in animal behaviour studies and environmental monitoring applications. PeerJ Inc. 2016-09-28 /pmc/articles/PMC5045875/ /pubmed/27703846 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2481 Text en ©2016 Gvirsman et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Animal Behavior
Gvirsman, Omer
Kosa, Gabor
Ayali, Amir
Dynamics and stability of directional jumps in the desert locust
title Dynamics and stability of directional jumps in the desert locust
title_full Dynamics and stability of directional jumps in the desert locust
title_fullStr Dynamics and stability of directional jumps in the desert locust
title_full_unstemmed Dynamics and stability of directional jumps in the desert locust
title_short Dynamics and stability of directional jumps in the desert locust
title_sort dynamics and stability of directional jumps in the desert locust
topic Animal Behavior
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5045875/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27703846
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2481
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