Animal Simulation Laboratory

BILL SELLERS

William Irvin Sellers & Todd C. Pataky & Paolo Caravaggi & Robin Huw Crompton (online published version) Evolutionary Robotic Approaches in Primate Gait Analysis. International Journal of Primatology DOI 10.1007/s10764-010-9396-4

This paper shows how important the Achilles tendon is for human running by creating computer simulations with and without the tendon. With the tendon running is both faster and more efficient! Interestingly chimpanzees and gorillas do not have this tendon (well they do, but it is too small to store any energy) and it is usually described as missing in orang-utans too. Strangely gibbons have a large Achilles tendon - perhaps to help them jump.

There are a set of models to go with this new paper. These work with GaitSym although rounding issues between different version of gcc mean that some of them fall over with the current version of GaitSym. However if you are developing running human models then these may be good starting points. You can also download a video of the simulation:

• ERAIPGA_Models.zip (2.1 MB)
• 640x360_non_tracked.mov (291 KB)

Dinosaur locomotion: "Four legs good, two legs better?"

Everyone knows that dinosaurs come in all shapes and sizes. Most don't look like anything that's alive today and some are just plain bizarre. One group that fit this description well are the duck-billed dinosaurs (aka hadrosaurs). Along with the strange appearance (the eponymous duck-bill, peculiar skull ornaments, and long, slender forelimbs) scientists have argued about how they might have moved: Did they walk on four limbs, two limbs, or a combination of both depending on the speed? It has even been suggested that some may have hopped like a kangaroo!