Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

COUPLED NONLINEAR OSCILLATORS AND THE SYMMETRIES OF ANIMAL GAITS

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

UNSPECIFIED (1993) COUPLED NONLINEAR OSCILLATORS AND THE SYMMETRIES OF ANIMAL GAITS. JOURNAL OF NONLINEAR SCIENCE, 3 (3). pp. 349-392. ISSN 0938-8974.

Research output not available from this repository.

Request-a-Copy directly from author or use local Library Get it For Me service.

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

Animal locomotion typically employs several distinct periodic patterns of leg movements, known as gaits. It has long been observed that most gaits possess a degree of symmetry. Our aim is to draw attention to some remarkable parallels between the generalities of coupled nonlinear oscillators and the observed symmetries of gaits, and to describe how this observation might impose constraints on the general structure of the neural circuits, i.e. central pattern generators, that control locomotion. We compare the symmetries of gaits with the symmetry-breaking oscillation patterns that should be expected in various networks of symmetrically coupled nonlinear oscillators. We discuss the possibility that transitions between gaits may be modeled as symmetry-breaking bifurcations of such oscillator networks. The emphasis is on general model-independent features of such networks. rather than on specific models. Each type of network generates a characteristic set of gait symmetries, so our results may be interpreted as an analysis of the general structure required of a central pattern generator in order to produce the types of gait observed in the natural world. The approach leads to natural hierarchies of gaits, ordered by symmetry, and to natural sequences of gait bifurcations. We briefly discuss how the ideas could be extended to hexapodal gaits.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: Q Science > QA Mathematics
T Technology > TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
Q Science > QC Physics
Journal or Publication Title: JOURNAL OF NONLINEAR SCIENCE
Publisher: SPRINGER VERLAG
ISSN: 0938-8974
Official Date: 1993
Dates:
DateEvent
1993UNSPECIFIED
Volume: 3
Number: 3
Number of Pages: 44
Page Range: pp. 349-392
Publication Status: Published

Data sourced from Thomson Reuters' Web of Knowledge

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item
twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us