Power Limits of Repeatable Movement in Small, Fast Organisms: Guiding Principles for Engineering Design

ORAL

Abstract

Many biological systems incorporate spring and latch elements to enhance power output. These power-amplified biological systems can exceed current engineering performance: they produce high accelerations that can be continuously fueled through metabolic processes, and are used repeatedly with minimal performance degradation. In this work, we establish a framework for analyzing power amplified systems. We model how power enhancement emerges through the dynamic coupling of motors, springs, and latches, each of which displays its own force-velocity behavior. This approach reveals a rich and tunable performance landscape for spring-actuated movement that is applies to biological and synthetic systems. By including non-ideal springs and latches, we identify critical transitions in mass that depend on the materials properties and geometry of the spring and latch components. Analyzing the components as a single, integrated system, reveals the necessity for tuning and inherent tunability of the system. The integration of mathematical, physical, engineering, and biological approaches illuminates the interdependence of power enhancing components and their effects in biological and engineered systems.

*Supported by the U.S. Army Research Lab./U.S. Army Research Office W911NF-15-1-0358

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Presenters

  • Sarah Bergbreiter

    • University of Maryland

Authors

  • Mark Ilton

    • Polymer Science & Engineering Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst
    • University of Massachusetts Amherst
    • Univ of Mass - Amherst

  • Saad Bhamla

    • Stanford University

  • Xiaotian Ma

    • University of Maryland

  • Suzanne Cox

    • Pennsylvania State University
    • Duke University

  • Leah L. Fitchett

    • Duke University

  • Yongjin Kim

    • Polymer Sci. & Eng., Univ of Mass - Amherst
    • University of Massachusetts Amherst

  • Je-sung Koh

    • Harvard University

  • Deepak Krishnamurthy

    • Stanford University

  • Chi-Yun Kuo

    • Duke University

  • Fatma Zeynep Temel

    • Harvard University

  • Alfred Crosby

    • Polymer Sci. & Eng., Univ of Mass - Amherst
    • University of Massachusetts Amherst
    • Univ of Mass - Amherst
    • Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts
    • Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst
    • Polymer Science & Engineering Department, Univ of Mass - Amherst

  • Manu Prakash

    • Stanford University
    • Bioengineering, Stanford University
    • Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University
    • Bio-Engineering, Stanford University

  • Gregory P. Sutton

    • University of Bristol

  • Robert J. Wood

    • Harvard University

  • Emanuel Azizi

    • University of California Irvine

  • Sarah Bergbreiter

    • University of Maryland

  • S. N. Patek

    • Duke University