Shen ZhuoHua, Seipel Justin
School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University 585 Purdue Mall, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA.
School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University 585 Purdue Mall, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA.
J Theor Biol. 2015 Jul 21;377:66-74. doi: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2015.04.010. Epub 2015 Apr 20.
Despite a wide diversity of running animals, their leg stiffness normalized by animal size and weight (a relative leg stiffness) resides in a narrow range between 7 and 27. Here we determine if the stability of locomotion could be a driving factor for the tight distribution of animal leg stiffness. We simulated an established physics-based model (the actuated Spring-Loaded Inverted Pendulum model) of animal running and found that, with the same energetic cost, perturbations to locomotion are optimally corrected when relative leg stiffness is within the biologically observed range. Here we show that the stability of locomotion, in combination with energetic cost, could be a significant factor influencing the nearly universally observed animal relative leg stiffness range. The energetic cost of locomotion has been widely acknowledged as influencing the evolution of physiology and locomotion behaviors. Specifically, its potential importance for relative leg stiffness has been demonstrated. Here, we demonstrate that stability of locomotion may also be a significant factor influencing relative leg stiffness.
尽管奔跑动物种类繁多，但通过动物体型和体重归一化后的腿部刚度（相对腿部刚度）处于7到27的狭窄范围内。在此，我们确定运动稳定性是否可能是动物腿部刚度紧密分布的驱动因素。我们模拟了一个已建立的基于物理的动物奔跑模型（驱动弹簧加载倒立摆模型），发现当相对腿部刚度在生物学观察范围内时，在相同能量消耗的情况下，对运动的扰动能得到最佳校正。在此我们表明，运动稳定性与能量消耗相结合，可能是影响几乎普遍观察到的动物相对腿部刚度范围的一个重要因素。运动的能量消耗已被广泛认为会影响生理和运动行为的进化。具体而言，其对相对腿部刚度的潜在重要性已得到证明。在此，我们证明运动稳定性也可能是影响相对腿部刚度的一个重要因素。
