Jumping Motion by Frog Cyborg

Abstract

To clarify the locomotive function of living organisms, it is necessary to understand the mechanisms that connect the musculoskeletal system to locomotion. Therefore, we developed a frog cyborg that can jump by directly controlling the musculoskeletal structure of living organisms. In this research, we used a cyborg to reproduce the outstanding jumping movements of the Tago’s brown frog. We electrically stimulated sciatic nerves and/or Longissimus dorsi muscle. As a result, we observed that snap-through buckling by trunk extension simultaneously occurred with leg kicking during upward jumping.