Figure 2.
Wave motion and curvature of the simulated mechanical worm (MW) in the absence of obstacles. (a) The wave motion over one period for the MW model tuned to reproduce free-swimming worm-like kinematics. The parameters specifying the driving torque that yield this motion are 𝒲 = 22.6, k = 1.5 π /L, and K0 = 8.25/L. In this image, the MW is moving downward and the gray level fades as time progresses. (b) The contour image shows the propagation of the curvature waves for this free-swimming MW. These waves closely match experimentally measured values for speed and amplitude [19]. (Online version in colour.)