Gait Characteristics and Adaptation Strategies of Ants with Missing Legs

This paper systematically studies the movement behavior changes of Camponotus japonicus under one or two leg injuries. Firstly, a linear motion channel matching the size of the ants’ legs was designed, and the movements of ants with different leg injuries were captured using high-speed cameras, constructing a comprehensive video dataset of ants’ movements with missing legs. Secondly, stable and reliable motion position information for keypoints on the ants’ bodies and legs was obtained by utilizing low-annotation biometric keypoint detection technology. Finally, by analyzing the filtered gait data, information about the changes in the step locational points areas, phase differences, and duty factors of the injured ants’ remaining legs was obtained. Comparative analysis of the ants’ gait characteristics revealed some common adjustment patterns when the ants were in the injured states. Additionally, the study found that the loss of a foreleg had a significant impact on the ants’ movement. When two legs were missing, the loss of both legs on the same side had a greater effect on movement, whereas symmetric opposite-side leg loss conditions had a lesser impact. The research will provide an important reference for the subsequent design of gait adjustment algorithms for biomimetic multi-legged robots under damaged conditions.