Graceful gait transitions for biomimetic locomotion - the worm

The problem of finding the most graceful transitions between different gaits of a simplified one-dimensional worm model, with asymmetric kinetic frictional forces, is posed in this paper. A novel definition of graceful transitions is suggested in this context as the transitions that maximally preserve the natural periodic behavior of the gaits. The problem is set up as an optimal control problem and the necessary conditions for a graceful transition are derived.