Java applet: Neuromechanical simulation of salamander locomotion

[Auke Ijspeert]

People interested in the neural control of locomotion might be 
interested in a Java applet that we recently developed of a 
neuromechanical simulation of salamander locomotion.

The applet can be tested on the following page:
http://lslwww.epfl.ch/birg/  (cf the Salamander Java applet link).

The project investigates the control of locomotion in salamander, and 
the transition from swimming to walking during vertebrate evolution. We 
study whether neural controllers for swimming similar to those of the 
lamprey can be extended to control both the swimming and walking of the 
salamander, and the gait transition between these two modes. The 
salamander is believed to be one of the modern tetrapods closest to the 
first vertebrate having made the transition from aquatic to terrestrial 
habitats during evolution. Using a neuromechanical simulation of the 
salamander, i.e. a simulation which combines a mechanical model of the 
body and a neural network model of the locomotor central pattern 
generator, we investigate several organizations of neural networks 
capable of producing, and switching between,  the typical swimming and 
walking gaits of the salamander.


Comments and feedback are welcome.

Best regards,

Auke Ijspeert and Sebastien Catherinet

Ps: More details concerning the simulation can be found in the following 
paper:
Ijspeert A.J.: A connectionist central pattern generator for the aquatic 
and terrestrial gaits of a simulated salamander, Biological Cybernetics, 
Vol. 84:5, 2001, pp 331-348

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Dr Auke Jan Ijspeert

SNF (Swiss National Science Foundation) Assistant Professor
School of Computer and Communication Sciences
EPFL, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne
CH 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland 
Office: INN 241     Tel: +41 21 693 2658,    Fax: +41 21 693 3705
www: http://lslwww.epfl.ch/birg      Email: Auke.Ijspeert at epfl.ch

Adjunct Assistant Professor,
Department of Computer Science, University of Southern California
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