Andrew Biewener and Sheila Patek
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198743156
- eISBN:
- 9780191803031
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198743156.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Animal Biology, Ecology
This book provides a synthesis of the physical, physiological, evolutionary, and biomechanical principles that underlie animal locomotion. An understanding and full appreciation of animal locomotion ...
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This book provides a synthesis of the physical, physiological, evolutionary, and biomechanical principles that underlie animal locomotion. An understanding and full appreciation of animal locomotion requires the integration of these principles. Toward this end, we provide the necessary introductory foundation that will allow a more in-depth understanding of the physical biology and physiology of animal movement. In so doing, we hope that this book will illuminate the fundamentals and breadth of these systems, while inspiring our readers to look more deeply into the scientific literature and investigate new features of animal movement. Several themes run through this book. The first is that by comparing the modes and mechanisms by which animals have evolved the capacity for movement, we can understand the common principles that underlie each mode of locomotion. A second is that size matters. One of the most amazing aspects of biology is the enormous spatial and temporal scale over which organisms and biological processes operate. Within each mode of locomotion, animals have evolved designs and mechanisms that effectively contend with the physical properties and forces imposed on them by their environment. Understanding the constraints of scale that underlie locomotor mechanisms is essential to appreciating how these mechanisms have evolved and how they operate. A third theme is the importance of taking an integrative and comparative evolutionary approach in the study of biology. Organisms share much in common. Much of their molecular and cellular machinery is the same. They also must navigate similar physical properties of their environment. Consequently, an integrative approach to organismal function that spans multiple levels of biological organization provides a strong understanding of animal locomotion. By comparing across species, common principles of design emerge. Such comparisons also highlight how certain organisms may differ and point to strategies that have evolved for movement in diverse environments. Finally, because convergence upon common designs and the generation of new designs result from historical processes governed by natural selection, it is also important that we ask how and why these systems have evolved.Less
This book provides a synthesis of the physical, physiological, evolutionary, and biomechanical principles that underlie animal locomotion. An understanding and full appreciation of animal locomotion requires the integration of these principles. Toward this end, we provide the necessary introductory foundation that will allow a more in-depth understanding of the physical biology and physiology of animal movement. In so doing, we hope that this book will illuminate the fundamentals and breadth of these systems, while inspiring our readers to look more deeply into the scientific literature and investigate new features of animal movement. Several themes run through this book. The first is that by comparing the modes and mechanisms by which animals have evolved the capacity for movement, we can understand the common principles that underlie each mode of locomotion. A second is that size matters. One of the most amazing aspects of biology is the enormous spatial and temporal scale over which organisms and biological processes operate. Within each mode of locomotion, animals have evolved designs and mechanisms that effectively contend with the physical properties and forces imposed on them by their environment. Understanding the constraints of scale that underlie locomotor mechanisms is essential to appreciating how these mechanisms have evolved and how they operate. A third theme is the importance of taking an integrative and comparative evolutionary approach in the study of biology. Organisms share much in common. Much of their molecular and cellular machinery is the same. They also must navigate similar physical properties of their environment. Consequently, an integrative approach to organismal function that spans multiple levels of biological organization provides a strong understanding of animal locomotion. By comparing across species, common principles of design emerge. Such comparisons also highlight how certain organisms may differ and point to strategies that have evolved for movement in diverse environments. Finally, because convergence upon common designs and the generation of new designs result from historical processes governed by natural selection, it is also important that we ask how and why these systems have evolved.
Dylan Evans and Walter de Back
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199586073
- eISBN:
- 9780191731358
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199586073.003.0025
- Subject:
- Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology, Developmental Psychology
Robotics has been heavily influenced by cognitive psychology and evolutionary biology, but evolutionary psychology, has not yet had such a big impact on the field. In this essay we describe how ...
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Robotics has been heavily influenced by cognitive psychology and evolutionary biology, but evolutionary psychology, has not yet had such a big impact on the field. In this essay we describe how evolutionary psychology may come to have a greater impact on robotics in the near future. We first describe the role that cognitive psychology and evolutionary biology have played in the development of robotics, and describe the few lessons that have been drawn so far by roboticists from evolutionary psychology itself. We go on to propose a new research program in robotics which we term “synthetic evolutionary psychology.” Finally, we also explore some of the lessons which roboticists might draw from evolutionary psychology when designing robots intended for rich psychological interactions with humans.Less
Robotics has been heavily influenced by cognitive psychology and evolutionary biology, but evolutionary psychology, has not yet had such a big impact on the field. In this essay we describe how evolutionary psychology may come to have a greater impact on robotics in the near future. We first describe the role that cognitive psychology and evolutionary biology have played in the development of robotics, and describe the few lessons that have been drawn so far by roboticists from evolutionary psychology itself. We go on to propose a new research program in robotics which we term “synthetic evolutionary psychology.” Finally, we also explore some of the lessons which roboticists might draw from evolutionary psychology when designing robots intended for rich psychological interactions with humans.
Andrew A. Biewener and Shelia N. Patek (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198743156
- eISBN:
- 9780191803031
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198743156.003.0007
- Subject:
- Biology, Animal Biology, Ecology
Jumping, climbing and suspensory locomotion are specialized locomotor mechanisms used on land and in the air. Jumping is used for rapid launches from substrates. Climbing and suspensory movements ...
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Jumping, climbing and suspensory locomotion are specialized locomotor mechanisms used on land and in the air. Jumping is used for rapid launches from substrates. Climbing and suspensory movements enable locomotion up, under and through vertically-structured habitats, such as forests. Elastic energy storage is particularly important for jumping and catapult systems and we address the core concepts of power amplification that are exemplified in nature’s extreme jumpers. We examine the diverse mechanisms of attachment that characterize animals that can grasp and adhere to a diversity of structures. We conclude the chapter by examining the integration of biological capabilities with engineering innovations in these systems.Less
Jumping, climbing and suspensory locomotion are specialized locomotor mechanisms used on land and in the air. Jumping is used for rapid launches from substrates. Climbing and suspensory movements enable locomotion up, under and through vertically-structured habitats, such as forests. Elastic energy storage is particularly important for jumping and catapult systems and we address the core concepts of power amplification that are exemplified in nature’s extreme jumpers. We examine the diverse mechanisms of attachment that characterize animals that can grasp and adhere to a diversity of structures. We conclude the chapter by examining the integration of biological capabilities with engineering innovations in these systems.
