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Science 9 March 2007:
Vol. 315. no. 5817, p. 1333
DOI: 10.1126/science.315.5817.1333i
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This Week in Science

The locomotion of the salamander provides an opportunity to connect research on vertebrate swimming (such as in the lamprey) to research on tetrapod locomotion. Ijspeert et al. (p. 1416; see the news story by Pennisi) develop a theoretical model to show how a lamprey-like system can be extended to explain salamander locomotion. The model explains the transition from traveling to standing waves of body undulations, the automatic switch from one mode of locomotion to the other, the coordination between limbs and body during walking, and the control of speed and direction. To validate the model, the authors built a salamander-like robot capable of producing (and switching between) swimming, serpentine crawling, and walking gaits.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)