Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-20-2022
Abstract
Animal locomotion is influenced by a combination of constituent joint torques (e.g., due to limb inertia and passive viscoelasticity), which determine the necessary muscular response to move the limb. Across animal size-scales, the relative contributions of these constituent joint torques affect the muscular response in different ways. We used a multi-muscle biomechanical model to analyze how passive torque components change due to an animal’s size-scale during locomotion. By changing the size-scale of the model, we characterized emergent muscular responses at the hip as a result of the changing constituent torque profile. Specifically, we found that activation phases between extensor and flexor torques to be opposite between small and large sizes for the same kinematic motion. These results suggest general principles of how animal size affects neural control strategies. Our modeled torque profiles show a strong agreement with documented hindlimb torque during locomotion and can provide insights into the neural organization and muscle activation behavior of animals whose motion has not been extensively documented.
Keywords
biomechanics, locomotion, scaling, torque
Language
English
Publication Title
Biomimetics
Grant
DBI 2015317
Rights
© 2022 The Author(s). This is an Open Access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Young, F.R.; Chiel, H.J.; Tresch, M.C.; Heckman, C.J.; Hunt, A.J.; Quinn, R.D. Analyzing Modeled Torque Profiles to Understand Scale-Dependent Active Muscle Responses in the Hip Joint. Biomimetics 2022, 7, 17. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics7010017
Manuscript Version
Final Publisher Version