Drosophila uses a tripod gait across all walking speeds, and the geometry of the tripod is important for speed control

Abstract
Data availability
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Abstract

Changes in walking speed are characterized by changes in both the animal's gait and the mechanics of its interaction with the ground. Here we study these changes in walking Drosophila. We measured the fly's center of mass (CoM) movement with high spatial resolution and the position of its footprints. Flies predominantly employ a modified tripod gait that only changes marginally with speed. The mechanics of a tripod gait can be approximated with a simple model – angular and radial spring-loaded inverted pendulum (ARSLIP) – which is characterized by two springs of an effective leg that become stiffer as the speed increases. Surprisingly, the change in the stiffness of the spring is mediated by the change in tripod shape rather than a change in stiffness of the individual leg. The effect of tripod shape on mechanics can also explain the large variation in kinematics among insects, and ARSLIP can model these variations.

Data availability

Data is available on Dryad under doi:10.5061/dryad.m63xsj41g and Github https://github.com/vbhandawat/FlyTripod_eLife_2021/

The following data sets were generated

(2021) Data from: Drosophila uses a tripod gait across all walking speeds, and the geometry of the tripod is important for speed control
Dryad Digital Repository, 10.5061/dryad.m63xsj41g.

http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.m63xsj41g
(2021) FlyTripod_eLife_2021
Github, FlyTripod_eLife_2021.

https://github.com/vbhandawat/FlyTripod_eLife_2021/

Article and author information

Author details

Chanwoo Chun

Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-0759-6727
Tirthabir Biswas

Janelia Research Campus, Howard Medical Institute, Ashburn, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Vikas Bhandawat

Biomedical Engineering, Sciences and Health Systems, Drexel University, Philadelphia, United States

For correspondence
vb468@drexel.edu

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-2608-0403

Funding

National Science Foundation (IOS-1652647)

Vikas Bhandawat

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (RO1DC015827)

Vikas Bhandawat

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (RO1NS097881)

Vikas Bhandawat

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.