Mechanisms of Maneuverability

Centralization of Locomotor Control in Roaches & Robots

How do we assess the centralization of control in moving animals and machines and what are the consequences of changing ...
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Moths change their behavior, but not their aerodynamics to feed in windy environments

How do moths maneuver in windy environments?Hawkmoths naturally hover and feed from flowers in nature. Insects have developed an assortment ...
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Moths slow their brains to track flowers in low light

Hawkmoths, like Manduca sexta, hover and track moving flowers during natural foraging in  low light environments. Neural recordings from the ...
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Simultaneous dimensionality reduction of motor commands and movement

Once a behaving organism has acquired, processed, and transmitted sensory information it must still alter patterns of motor activation in ...
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Control theoretic approaches to experiment and analysis of locomotion

Locomotion is an inherently closed-loop process. What that means is that when we move it changes how we perceive the ...
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Precision phase control in flight muscles

The established perspective of flight control in insects holds that their remarkable maneuverability arises from neural modulation of relatively small ...
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An intact-limb workloop reveals how cockroach muscle changes function

Intact-joint workloop preparation for examining muscle function in situ to reveal how neural feedback combines with mechanics to change how ...
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Rewriting motor commands in a freely running animal shows the multifunctionality of muscle

What is the potential of a particular muscle to control locomotion and how does mechanics affect the control consequences of ...
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Bio-inspiration from how cockroaches navigate by touch

Animals must sense their environment in order to navigate. American cockroaches (Periplaneta americana L.) in the natural world often face ...
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How roaches run on rough terrian.

We tested whether mechanical stabilization strategies without external sensing can yield successful locomotion in a challenging environment. In this study, ...
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