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To traverse complex natural terrain, animals often transition betweenlocomotor modes. It is well known that locomotor transitions can be induced byswitching in neural control circuits or be driven by a need to minimizemetabolic energetic cost. Recent work discovered that locomotor transitions incomplex 3-D terrain cluttered with large obstacles can also emerge fromphysical interaction with the environment controlled by the nervous system. Totraverse cluttered, stiff grass-like beams, the discoid cockroach oftentransitions from using a strenuous pitch mode to push across to using a lessstrenuous roll mode to maneuver through the gaps, during which a potentialenergy barrier must be overcome. Although previous robotic physical modelingdemonstrated that kinetic energy fluctuation from body oscillation generated byleg propulsion can help overcome the barrier and facilitate this transition,the animal was observed to transition even when the barrier still exceedskinetic energy fluctuation. Here, we further studied whether and how thecockroach makes active adjustments to facilitate this locomotor transition totraverse cluttered beams. We observed that the animal flexed its head andabdomen, reduced hind leg sprawl, and used both hind legs differentially duringthe pitch-to-roll transition, which were absent when running on a flat ground.Using a refined potential energy landscape with additional degrees of freedommodeling these adjustments, we found that head flexion did not substantiallyreduce the transition barrier, whereas the leg sprawl reduction did sodramatically. We discussed likely functions of the observed adjustments andsuggested future directions.

Cockroaches adjust body and appendages to traverse cluttered large obstacles