Lateral Undulation Aids Biological and Robotic Earthworm Anchoring and Locomotion

Abstract

Earthworms (Lumbricus terrestris) are characterized by soft, highly flexible and extensible bodies, and are capable of locomoting in most terrestrial environments. Previous studies of earthworm movement have focused on the use of retrograde peristaltic gaits in which controlled contraction of longitudinal and circular muscles results in waves of shortening/thickening and thinning/lengthening of the hydrostatic skeleton. These waves can propel the animal across ground as well as into soil. However, worms can also benefit from axial body bends during locomotion. Such lateral undulation dynamics can aid locomotor function via hooking/anchoring (to provide propulsion), modify travel orientation (to avoid obstacles and generate turns) and even generate snake-like undulatory locomotion in environments where peristaltic locomotion results in poor performance. To the best of our knowledge, the important aspects of locomotion associated with the lateral undulation of an earthworm body are yet to be systematically investigated. In this study, we observed that within confined environments, the worm uses lateral undulation to anchor its body to the walls of their burrows and tip (nose) bending to search the environment. This relatively simple locomotion strategy drastically improved the performance of our soft bodied robophysical model of the earthworm both in a confined (in an acrylic tube) and above-ground heterogeneous environment (rigid pegs), where the peristaltic gait often fails. In summary, lateral undulation facilitates the mobility of earthworm locomotion in diverse environments and can play an important role in the creation of low cost soft robotic devices capable of traversing a variety of environments.