Natural mechanism of superexcellent vibration isolation of the chicken neck

Abstract

No matter how the chicken's body shakes, its head can always remain relatively motionless, leading to the intuitive impression that the S-configuration of the chicken neck possesses an unparalleled vibration isolation capability. However, this viewpoint has not been rigorously substantiated. To unravel the vibration isolation mechanism inherent in the chicken neck, this study introduces a multi-modular S-configurational model inspired by its biological structure. Utilizing Newton's law and Lagrange's equations, both the static and dynamic models for the S-configurational model are formulated. Furthermore, we incorporate actuators into the model and develop a bionic attitude control method. Surprisingly, numerical simulations reveal that the S-configuration of the chicken neck does not exhibit any passive vibration isolation function, challenging the intuitive impression. Instead, the motionless of a chicken head results from active control implemented by the corresponding chicken neck. This study may contribute to a better understanding of the vibration attenuation function of the neck of birds.