2022/05/09 by Silas Alben, Alben, Silas
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Amphibian and Reptile Biology #Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Robotics (cs.RO) #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #Venomous Animal Envenomation and Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2205.04447
openalex publication_date 2022/05/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We optimize three-dimensional snake kinematics for locomotor efficiency. We assume a general space-curve representation of the snake backbone with small-to-moderate lifting off the ground and negligible body inertia. The cost of locomotion includes work against friction and internal viscous dissipation. When restricted to planar kinematics, our population-based optimization method finds the same types of optima as a previous Newton-based method. A few types of optimal motions prevail. We find an s-shaped body with alternating lifting of the middle and ends for small-to-moderate transverse friction. For large transverse friction, curling and sliding motions are typical with small viscous dissipation, replaced by large-amplitude bending with large viscous dissipation. With small viscous dissipation we find local optima that resemble sidewinding motions across friction coefficient space. They are always suboptimal to alternating lifting motions, with average input power 10--100% higher.