Robotic feet modeled after ungulates improve locomotion on soft wet grounds.

Locomotion on soft yielding grounds is more complicated and energetically demanding than on hard ground. Wet soft ground (such as mud or snow) is a particularly difficult substance because it dissipates energy when stepping and resists extrusion of the foot. Sinkage in mud forces walkers to make higher steps, thus, to spend more energy.

Maneuvering on non-Newtonian fluidic terrain: a survey of animal and bio-inspired robot locomotion techniques on soft yielding grounds.

Frictionally yielding media are a particular type of non-Newtonian fluids that significantly deform under stress and do not recover their original shape. For example, mud, snow, soil, leaf litters, or sand are such substrates because they flow when stress is applied but do not bounce back when released. Some robots have been designed to move on those substrates.

Phosphorus recovery from sewage sludge - phosphorus leaching behavior from aluminum-containing tertiary and anaerobically digested sludge.

Systematic investigations of the acidic dissolution of phosphorus (P), aluminum (Al), iron (Fe), and calcium (Ca) from Al-containing tertiary sludge were carried out in this work. The results were compared with the dissolution behavior of Al-containing anaerobically digested sludge to evaluate the P recovery potential in the form of struvite from tertiary sludge versus anaerobically digested sludge. Additional investigations of synthetically produced Al sludge served as a comparison for the dissolution behavior of P and Al without the influence of other contaminants (metals, biomass).

Salmon behavioural response to robots in an aquaculture sea cage.

Animal-robot studies can inform us about animal behaviour and inspire advances in agriculture, environmental monitoring and animal health and welfare. Currently, experimental results on how fish are affected by the presence of underwater robots are largely limited to laboratory environments with few individuals and a focus on model species. Laboratory studies provide valuable insight, but their results are not necessarily generalizable to larger scales such as marine aquaculture.

Neural computational model GrowthEstimate: A model for studying living resources through digestive efficiency.

The neural computational model GrowthEstimate is introduced with focusing on new perspectives for the practical estimation of weight specific growth rate (SGR, % day-1). It is developed using recurrent neural networks of reservoir computing type, for estimating SGR based on the known data of three key biological factors relating to growth. These factors are: (1) weight (g) for specifying the age of the growth stage; (2) digestive efficiency through the pyloric caecal activity ratio of trypsin to chymotrypsin (T/C ratio) for specifying genetic differences in food utilization and growth potential, basically resulting from food consumption under variations in food quality and environmental conditions; and (3) protein growth efficiency through the condition factor (CF, 100 × g cm-3), as higher dietary protein level affecting higher skeletal growth (length) and resulting in lower CF.

Fish under pressure: Examining behavioural responses of Iberian barbel under simulated hydropeaking with instream structures.

Hydropeaking is the rapid change in the water flow downstream of a hydropower plant, driven by changes in daily electricity demand. These fluctuations may produce negative effects in freshwater fish. To minimize these impacts, previous studies have proposed habitat enhancement structures as potential mitigation measures for salmonids.

Removal of phosphonates from synthetic and industrial wastewater with reusable magnetic adsorbent particles.

This work proposes a technology for phosphonate removal from wastewater using magnetically separable microparticles modified with a tailored ZnFeZr-oxyhydroxide adsorbent material which proved to be highly efficient, reaching a maximum loading of ∼20 mg nitrilotrimethylphosphonic acid-P/g (215 μmol NTMP/g) at room temperature, pH 6 and 30 min contact time. The adsorption process at pH < 7 was fast, following the pseudo-second-order kinetics model. Furthermore, NTMP adsorption onto ZnFeZr-oxyhydroxide proved to be endothermic.

Lateral undulation of the flexible spine of sprawling posture vertebrates.

Sprawling posture vertebrates have a flexible spine that bends the trunk primarily in the horizontal plane during locomotion. By coordinating cyclical lateral trunk flexion and limb movements, these animals are very mobile and show extraordinary maneuverability. The dynamic and static stability displayed in complex and changing environments are highly correlated with such lateral bending patterns.

Man-made flows from a fish's perspective: autonomous classification of turbulent fishway flows with field data collected using an artificial lateral line.

The lateral line system provides fish with advanced mechanoreception over a wide range of flow conditions. Inspired by the abilities of their biological counterparts, artificial lateral lines have been developed and tested exclusively under laboratory settings. Motivated by the lack of flow measurements taken in the field which consider fluid-body interactions, we built a fish-shaped lateral line probe.

Simple analytical model reveals the functional role of embodied sensorimotor interaction in hexapod gaits.

Insects have various gaits with specific characteristics and can change their gaits smoothly in accordance with their speed. These gaits emerge from the embodied sensorimotor interactions that occur between the insect's neural control and body dynamic systems through sensory feedback. Sensory feedback plays a critical role in coordinated movements such as locomotion, particularly in stick insects.

Inversion of friction anisotropy in a bio-inspired asymmetrically structured surface.

Friction anisotropy is an important property of many surfaces that usually facilitate the generation of motion in a preferred direction. Such surfaces are very common in biological systems and have been the templates for various bio-inspired materials with similar tribological properties. So far friction anisotropy is considered to be the result of an asymmetric arrangement of surface nano- and microstructures.

Directionality of nose-emitted echolocation calls from bats without a nose leaf ().

All echolocating bats and whales measured to date emit a directional bio-sonar beam that affords them a number of advantages over an omni-directional beam, i.e. reduced clutter, increased source level and inherent directional information.

Adaptive Control Strategies for Interlimb Coordination in Legged Robots: A Review.

Walking animals produce adaptive interlimb coordination during locomotion in accordance with their situation. Interlimb coordination is generated through the dynamic interactions of the neural system, the musculoskeletal system, and the environment, although the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Recently, investigations of the adaptation mechanisms of living beings have attracted attention, and bio-inspired control systems based on neurophysiological findings regarding sensorimotor interactions are being developed for legged robots.

Fast Dynamical Coupling Enhances Frequency Adaptation of Oscillators for Robotic Locomotion Control.

Rhythmic neural signals serve as basis of many brain processes, in particular of locomotion control and generation of rhythmic movements. It has been found that specific neural circuits, named central pattern generators (CPGs), are able to autonomously produce such rhythmic activities. In order to tune, shape and coordinate the produced rhythmic activity, CPGs require sensory feedback, i.

An Adaptive Neural Mechanism for Acoustic Motion Perception with Varying Sparsity.

Biological motion-sensitive neural circuits are quite adept in perceiving the relative motion of a relevant stimulus. Motion perception is a fundamental ability in neural sensory processing and crucial in target tracking tasks. Tracking a stimulus entails the ability to perceive its motion, i.

Enhanced Locomotion Efficiency of a Bio-inspired Walking Robot using Contact Surfaces with Frictional Anisotropy.

Based on the principles of morphological computation, we propose a novel approach that exploits the interaction between a passive anisotropic scale-like material (e.g., shark skin) and a non-smooth substrate to enhance locomotion efficiency of a robot walking on inclines.

Depth-dependent hydraulic roughness and its impact on the assessment of hydropeaking.

Hydrodynamic river models in combination with physical habitat modelling serve as the basis for a wide spectrum of environmental studies. Larvae, juvenile and spawning fish, redds and benthic invertebrates belong to the biological groups most heavily affected by rapid flow variations as a consequence of peaking energy production, or "hydropeaking". As these species find their preferential habitat to a great extent in shallow regions, high prediction accuracy for these areas is essential to substantiate the use of hydrodynamic models.

From "ear" to there: a review of biorobotic models of auditory processing in lizards.

The peripheral auditory system of lizards has been extensively studied, because of its remarkable directionality. In this paper, we review the research that has been performed on this system using a biorobotic approach. The various robotic implementations developed to date, both wheeled and legged, of the auditory model exhibit strong phonotactic performance for two types of steering mechanisms-a simple threshold decision model and Braitenberg sensorimotor cross-couplings.

Collective responses of a large mackerel school depend on the size and speed of a robotic fish but not on tail motion.

So far, actuated fish models have been used to study animal interactions in small-scale controlled experiments. This study, conducted in a semi-controlled setting, investigates robot interactions with a large wild-caught marine fish school (∼3000 individuals) in their natural social environment. Two towed fish robots were used to decouple size, tail motion and speed in a series of sea-cage experiments.

Design and application of a fish-shaped lateral line probe for flow measurement.

We introduce the lateral line probe (LLP) as a measurement device for natural flows. Hydraulic surveys in rivers and hydraulic structures are currently based on time-averaged velocity measurements using propellers or acoustic Doppler devices. The long-term goal is thus to develop a sensor system, which includes spatial gradients of the flow field along a fish-shaped sensor body.

Economically affordable anatomical kidney phantom with calyxes for puncture and drainage training in interventional urology and radiology.

Background: Trends in interventional radiology and urology training are orientated towards reducing costs and increasing efficiency. In order to comply with the trends, we propose training on inexpensive patient-specific kidney phantoms.

Purpose: To develop a new kidney phantom for puncture and drainage training in interventional urology and radiology, and to evaluate their anatomical correctness and suitability for training compared to the traditional way of training on home-made phantoms.

A phantom pig abdomen as an alternative for testing robotic surgical systems: our experience.

The use of animals for testing and validating new medical devices and surgical techniques has raised ethical issues for a long time. Following the introduction of the Three Rs principle, significant efforts have been made to achieve a reduction in the numbers of animals used in testing. Nevertheless, the number of large animals used for testing purposes is still too high.

Low cost anatomically realistic renal biopsy phantoms for interventional radiology trainees.

This paper describes manufacturing of economically affordable renal biopsy phantoms for radiology residents and practicing radiologists. We reconstructed a realistic 3-dimensional patient-specific kidney model from CT data, manufactured an organ mould and casted the kidney phantoms. Using gelatin gel materials with calibrated parameters allowed making phantoms with realistic mechanical, ultrasound and CT properties including various pathologies.