Meeting Abstract
Pendular energy exchange has been highlighted as a crucial feature of efficient quadrupedal walking, but this perspective does not help to identify mechanisms responsible for energetic loss. We use the empirical ground reaction forces presented by Griffin et al. (2004) for walking dogs (Canis familiaris) to find the combination of phase offset and fore- and hindlimb duty factors that minimizes collisional losses. We find that the dynamics-based optimal symmetrical walk is a walking-trot or walking-pace, a pattern not normally used by dogs. However, these gaits are likely unavailable due to anatomical limitations and stability issues. When the model is constrained to options that are anatomically reasonable, the optimum is determined to be very near the actual walking gait chosen by dogs. These results indicate that collisional dynamics are influential in determining the optimum movement strategy for walking dogs. Some pendulum-like oscillations can be detected, but are much more likely a consequence of dogs employing an efficient movement strategy based on other factors, than a determinant of the effective strategy itself.
