Robots take to the land, with old swimming circuitry.

The origin of tetrapods and the accompanying changes from swimming to walking require numerous morphological and biological changes. However, a new study published in Science demonstrates that the neurological signals for walking and swimming are remarkably similar. Using a robotic salamander, the team wired the circuitry of the robot like the modern salamander and lamprey, where signals for locomotion are fired off in traveling waves along the axis of the body. The robot swims well (although slower than the living salamander), but when placed on land to get the robot to walk the researchers just had to lower the frequency of the signals to slow down to the rhythm of walking. Robots are an important innovation in the study of vertebrate motion and evolution.


Ijspeert, A.J., A. Crespi, D. Ryczko, and J-M. Cabelguen. 2007. From Swimming to Walking with a Salamander Robot Driven by a Spinal Cord Model. Science 315 (5817), 1416