Walking on inclines: how do desert ants monitor slope and step length?

Effect of Step Length and Step Period on Walking Speed and Energy Consumption: a Parameter Study

Stability and performance are two main issues in motion of bipeds. To ensure stability of motion, a biped needs to follow specific pattern to comply with a stability criterion such as zero moment point. However, there are infinity many patterns of motion which ensure stability, so one might think of achieving better performance by choosing proper parameters of motion. Step length and step perio...

Panting desert ants--and how they navigate.

How Do Ants Make Sense of Gravity? A Boltzmann Walker Analysis of Lasius niger Trajectories on Various Inclines

The goal of this study is to describe accurately how the directional information given by support inclinations affects the ant Lasius niger motion in terms of a behavioral decision. To this end, we have tracked the spontaneous motion of 345 ants walking on a 0.5×0.5 m plane canvas, which was tilted with 5 various inclinations by [Formula: see text] rad ([Formula: see text] data points). At the ...

effect of step length and step period on walking speed and energy consumption: a parameter study

stability and performance are two main issues in motion of bipeds. to ensure stability of motion, a biped needs to follow specific pattern to comply with a stability criterion such as zero moment point. however, there are infinity many patterns of motion which ensure stability, so one might think of achieving better performance by choosing proper parameters of motion. step length and step perio...

Walking on inclines: energetics of locomotion in the ant Camponotus.

To assess energetic costs during rest and locomotion in a small insect, we measured metabolic rate in freely moving ants Camponotus sp. (average body mass 11.9 mg). The animals ran in a straight respirometric chamber in which locomotor speed and CO2 release were monitored simultaneously using flow-through respirometry and conventional video analysis. In resting intact ants, standard metabolic r...