Muscle fatigue in the latch-mediated spring actuated mandibles of trap-jaw ants.
Integr Comp Biol
; 2022 Jun 11.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35689666
ABSTRACT
Muscle fatigue can reduce performance potentially affecting an organism's fitness. However, some aspects of fatigue could be overcome by employing a latch-mediated spring actuated system (LaMSA) where muscle activity is decoupled from movement. We estimated the effects of muscle fatigue on different aspects of mandible performance in six species of ants, two whose mandibles are directly actuated by muscles and four that have LaMSA "trap-jaw" mandibles. We found evidence that the LaMSA system of trap-jaw ants may prevent some aspects of performance from declining with repeated use, including duration, acceleration and peak velocity. However, inter-strike interval increased with repeated strikes suggesting that muscle fatigue still comes into play during the spring loading phase. In contrast, one species with directly actuated mandibles showed a decline in bite force over time. These results have implications for design principles aimed at minimizing the effects of fatigue on performance in spring and motor actuated systems.
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MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2022
Tipo de documento:
Article