Image-based Measurement of Ultra-fast Movement of Mandible in Trap-Jaw Ants

Abstract

The trap jaw ant Odontomachus kuroiwae moves its the mandible at an ultra high speed. It closes the mandible by the contraction of adductor muscles, however, there still remains unclear how the ultra-high-speed movement exceeds the expected one by the muscles contraction. In this paper, we propose an image measurement method for analyzing the motion of mandible closing by use of the very high speed imaging by a high-speed camera. We also aim at modeling of the mechanism based on the measurement in order to construct a mechanical model of mandible movement for some design in advanced robotics.