The Mechanism of Locomotion of Terrestrial Gastropod on Pedal Mucus.

Abstract

A terrestrial gastropod moves on highly viscous mucus with surface waves. The model presented in this paper considers the shear flow induced by surface velocity of the foot. According to the numerical analysis, the body moves in the same direction as the surface waves. The film thickness shows a wavy distribution due to the shear flow induced by the periodic stretch-shrink action. Consequently, the net traction becomes positive because of the phase difference between the film thickness and the surface velocity. The calculated result was compared with the measured result for a snail. Such a mechanism may be applied to operate endoscopes, catheters or medical robots in patient's bodies with minimum invasion.