Friction modulation for limbless locomotion


The page provides an interactive sandbox for exploring and providing intuition for the behavior of a snake as it adapts its gait in terrains of various nature. On the right you can access a drop-down menu for choosing a behavioral archetype of the snake. If you want more fine-level control, you can utilize sliders to change dynamical parameters. To access the physical meaning of these parameters, please hover over the underlined text.


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Choose snake behavior archetype

Physical parameters

Friction ratio Ratio of friction between the lateral and forward directions
  \(\mu_t / \mu_f\) =

Froude number Non-dimensional number representing the ratio of inertial to friction forces
  \( Fr\) =


Lateral wave

Activation :

Activation function Function for the imposed (active) curvature of the snake body
  \(\kappa (s,t) \)
\( \)


Amplitude Lateral wave amplitude
  \( \epsilon\) =
Test

Lifting Wave

Lift :

Lift function Function imposing the lift of snake body from the surface
  \(\hat{N} (s,t) \)
\( {} \)


Amplitude Amplitude of the lift function
  \( A \) =
Wavenumber ratio Ratio of wavenumbers between the lift and curvature wave
  \( \lambda = k_l / k \) =
Phase Phase difference between lift and curvature wave
  \( \Phi \) =
Exp. Coeff Coefficient scaling the curvature wave
  \( A \) =