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Published April 7, 2000 | public
Journal Article

How Animals Move: An Integrative View

Abstract

Recent advances in integrative studies of locomotion have revealed several general principles. Energy storage and exchange mechanisms discovered in walking and running bipeds apply to multilegged locomotion and even to flying and swimming. Nonpropulsive lateral forces can be sizable, but they may benefit stability, maneuverability, or other criteria that become apparent in natural environments. Locomotor control systems combine rapid mechanical preflexes with multimodal sensory feedback and feedforward commands. Muscles have a surprising variety of functions in locomotion, serving as motors, brakes, springs, and struts. Integrative approaches reveal not only how each component within a locomotor system operates but how they function as a collective whole.

Additional Information

© 2000 American Association for the Advancement of Science. The authors thank A. Ahn, A. Biewener, F. Fish, M. Garcia, R. Ritzmann, T. Roberts, M. Wake, G. Lauder, R. Marsh, and T. R. Nichols for helpful comments on the manuscript and figures. Supported by grants from NSF (IBN-9723424), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) (FD97-23425), and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) (N00014-99-0882) to M.H.D.; NIH (AR44008A) to C.T.F.; ONR (N00014-98-0747) and DARPA (N00014-98-1-0669) to R.J.F.; NSF (OCE-9907120) to M.A.R.K.; and NIH (AR44688) to R.K.

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 19, 2023