Mitigating memory effects during undulatory locomotion on hysteretic materials.

ABSTRACT: While terrestrial locomotors often contend with permanently deformable substrates like sand, soil, and mud, principles of motion on such materials are lacking. We study the desert-specialist shovel-nosed snake traversing a model sand and find body inertia is negligible despite rapid transit and speed dependent granular reaction forces. New surface resistive force theory (RFT) calculation reveals how wave shape in these snakes minimizes material memory effects and optimizes escape performance given physiological power limitations. RFT explains the morphology and waveform-dependent performance of a diversity of non-sand-specialist snakes but overestimates the capability of those snakes which suffer high lateral slipping of the body. Robophysical experiments recapitulate aspects of these fail

SUBMITTER: Schiebel PE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7314545 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature