Created robot mudskipper model for understanding the evolution – Fainaidea (Blog)

mudskipper – it’s incredibly touching the fish, which is able to walk on the ground and finding good moves in the dry space. It is small, and the assumptions of scientists, appeared before the amphibians emerged on land, becoming their supposed progenitor. Explanation movements mudskipper help and robotics, and biologists, and scientists to study evolution.

in order to understand the behavior of mudskipper, scientists have used the observations of it himself, mathematical models and robot MuddyBot, developed as part of this study in the Georgia Institute of Technology, Clemson University and the University of Carnegie Mellon.

During the observation of the jumper seems that the fish is controlled by only the fins, tail and he serves as an unnecessary appendage. However, as it turned tail has a very important role in the possibility of fish to travel along the sand. Mudskipper while walking uses fins to transfer the body, but their power is not enough to raise and maintain it at a height and rotation, and it is these functions that assumes the tail, which is not very noticeable on the natural patterns of the fish. In addition, the tail and accelerates the movement of fish in the sand.

« Fish provided morphological, functional models, “- said the student and researcher mudskipper Clemson Benjamin:” With the robot, we we can simplify the job, to begin to understand the physical mechanisms occurring. With the help of mathematical models and simulation, we were able to understand the physics of what is happening ».

Now, all study participants are hoping to use the results to build a more stable and fast robots, as well as for understanding the processes that occur at the time of the underwater outlet inhabitants of the land.

«We want to finally know how natural selection may act on the change in the structure already present in the body to prepare for movement in a radically different environment,” – said Professor Dan Goldman of the University of Georgia: “Swimming and walking on land are radically different, but these early animals had to make the transition »

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