Are elastic systems 'use it or lose it?'
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Is jumping during growth necessary to develop an elastic system good for jumping? To test this we eliminated jumping from the behavioral repertoire of a group of guinea fowl for their entire growth period. At maturity, we compared the jump performance of our treatment group to controls and measured the morphological characteristics of the elastic system. We then quantified the energy storage capacity by measuring tendon potential energy when simulating 100% activation of the gastrocnemius muscle of a flock of subject-specific musculoskeletal models that integrated morphological measurements. We found no difference in any elements of the elastic system, the energy storage capacity between groups nor any correlation with jump performance. We conclude gastrocnemius elastic system in the guinea fowl is reliant to decreased demand during growth and hypothesize that neural plasticity may explain performance variation. Preprint available
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How does the body adapt at the biology-robotic interface?
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RoboBird: In collaboration with Jonas Rubenson and Greg Sawicki, I have built a lower limb orthosis for a guinea fowl. We’re exploring the long-term musculoskeletal and neuromechanical adaptations to wearable rotobtics.
Cox Rubenson and Sawicki 2019 IEEE/ RSJ |
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