TY - GEN
T1 - From Behavior to Bio-Inspiration
T2 - Aerial Reorientation and Multi-Plane Stability in Kangaroo Rats, Computational Models, and Robots
AU - Chu, Xiangyu
AU - Schwaner, M. Janneke
AU - An, Jiajun
AU - Wang, Shengzhi
AU - Mcgowan, Craig P
AU - Au, Kwok Wai Samuel
PY - 2024/9/1
Y1 - 2024/9/1
N2 - Synopsis Tails play essential roles in functions related to locomotor stability and maneuverability among terrestrial and arbo-real animals. In kangaroo rats, bipedal hopping rodents, tails are used as effective inertial appendages for stability in hopping,but also facilitate stability and maneuverability during predator escape leaps. The complexity of tail functionality shows great potential for bio-inspiration and robotic device design, as maneuvering is accomplished by a long and light-weight inertial ap-pendage. To (1) further understand the mechanics of how kangaroo rats use their tails during aerial maneuvers and (2) explore if we can achieve this behavior with a simplified tail-like appendage (i.e., template), we combined quantified animal observations, computational simulations, and experiments with a two degrees of freedom (2-DoF) tailed robot. We used video data from free-ranging kangaroo rats escaping from a simulated predator and analyzed body and tail motion for the airborne phase. To explain tail contributions to body orientation (i.e., spatial reorientation), we built a mid-air kangaroo rat computational model and demonstrated that the three-dimensional body orientation of the model can be controlled by a simplified 2-DoF tail with a nonlinear control strategy. Resulting simulated trajectories show movement patterns similar to those observed in kangaroo rats. Our robot experiments show that a lightweight tail can generate a large yaw displacement and stabilize pitch and roll an-gles to zero simultaneously. Our work contributes to better understanding of the form-function relationship of the kangaroo rat tail and lays out an important foundation for bio-inspiration in robotic devices that have lightweight tail-like appendages for mid-air maneuvering.
AB - Synopsis Tails play essential roles in functions related to locomotor stability and maneuverability among terrestrial and arbo-real animals. In kangaroo rats, bipedal hopping rodents, tails are used as effective inertial appendages for stability in hopping,but also facilitate stability and maneuverability during predator escape leaps. The complexity of tail functionality shows great potential for bio-inspiration and robotic device design, as maneuvering is accomplished by a long and light-weight inertial ap-pendage. To (1) further understand the mechanics of how kangaroo rats use their tails during aerial maneuvers and (2) explore if we can achieve this behavior with a simplified tail-like appendage (i.e., template), we combined quantified animal observations, computational simulations, and experiments with a two degrees of freedom (2-DoF) tailed robot. We used video data from free-ranging kangaroo rats escaping from a simulated predator and analyzed body and tail motion for the airborne phase. To explain tail contributions to body orientation (i.e., spatial reorientation), we built a mid-air kangaroo rat computational model and demonstrated that the three-dimensional body orientation of the model can be controlled by a simplified 2-DoF tail with a nonlinear control strategy. Resulting simulated trajectories show movement patterns similar to those observed in kangaroo rats. Our robot experiments show that a lightweight tail can generate a large yaw displacement and stabilize pitch and roll an-gles to zero simultaneously. Our work contributes to better understanding of the form-function relationship of the kangaroo rat tail and lays out an important foundation for bio-inspiration in robotic devices that have lightweight tail-like appendages for mid-air maneuvering.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85205275141&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/icb/icae079
DO - 10.1093/icb/icae079
M3 - Conference contribution
T3 - Integrative and Comparative Biology
SP - 661
EP - 673
BT - Integrative and Comparative Biology
PB - Oxford University press
ER -