Biological Inspiration from Dynamic Modeling of Human Hand and Trap-Jaw Ant Mandible Movements

Ant Colony Optimisation: From Biological Inspiration to an Algorithmic Framework

The trap-jaw ant genus Odontomachus Latreille (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Sumatra, with a new species description.

The ant genus Odontomachus Latreille is reviewed for Sumatra, the sixth largest island in the world and located in western Indonesia. Previously three species were recorded from the island: O. simillimus F. Smith, O. rixosus F. Smith, and O. latidens Mayr. We add two species to the fauna, O. procerus Emery stat. nov and Odontomachus minangkabau sp. nov. The new species belongs to O. rixosus spe...

Biological Inspiration in Human Centred Robotics

Human Centred Robotics (HCR) concerns with the development of various kinds of intelligent systems and robots that will be used in environments coexisting with humans. These systems and robots will be interactive and useful assistants/companions for people in different ages, situations, activities and environments in order to improve our quality of life. This paper presents our current research...

Mandible-Powered Escape Jumps in Trap-Jaw Ants Increase Survival Rates during Predator-Prey Encounters

Animals use a variety of escape mechanisms to increase the probability of surviving predatory attacks. Antipredator defenses can be elaborate, making their evolutionary origin unclear. Trap-jaw ants are known for their rapid and powerful predatory mandible strikes, and some species have been observed to direct those strikes at the substrate, thereby launching themselves into the air away from a...

From Jaw Tracking towards Dynamic Computer Models of Human Mastication

In this paper, we enhance the model of the human masticatory system presented in [1] by incorporating prescribed movements of the mandible during a chewing cycle. To obtain realistic descriptions of such movements, we have developed a custom-made brace that allows us to use a motion capturing system typically applied to human movement and gait analysis. In this paper, we give a brief descriptio...