How Orb-Weaver Spiders Use Leg posture to Modulate Vibration Sensing of Prey on Webs

底物传播的振动是一种无处不在的信息形式，动物利用它来感知和交流。它比其他感官模式对物理约束更敏感，因为振动在到达传感器之前必须通过通常是异质的物理环境和动物本身传播。许多动物在感应过程中表现出积极的行为，甚至与目标相互作用，但控制这些过程的物理原理尚未得到很好的理解。在这个奖项中，研究人员将研究一个由蜘蛛、网和目标（猎物、配偶、入侵者等）组成的模型扩展感觉系统，并解决振动感知调制的主动行为的好处。圆织蜘蛛是最大的蜘蛛家族之一（3000多种），它们用腿上的传感器来感知目标通过网和自己腿传播的振动。尽管它们有着巨大的进化多样性，但当目标存在时，许多圆织蜘蛛都表现出共同的行为策略，即调节织网和调整腿的姿势，以增强振动感知，这表明潜在的物理原理在塑造它们的行为进化中起着至关重要的作用。研究人员将在一种模式生物（多样栉蛛）中探索蜘蛛对腿部姿势的主动调节如何影响其对蛛网上目标的振动感知。解决这个问题的方法将结合生物实验，这将定量表征腿的姿势行为和网的振动，以及机器人物理和仿真建模，这将系统地改变系统参数，以发现物理原理。这项研究将在一个模型系统中揭示动物如何利用物理环境（网络）和生物媒介（蜘蛛本身）中的振动物理特性，利用主动行为。这项研究将通过发现在自然环境中支配行为的物理原理来推进行为物理学。这项研究还将通过增加对动物如何主动使用行为来调节作为传感系统一部分的构建基质的理解，扩展生物主动传感领域。该项目将在工程和生物实验室为从博士到高中的各个层次的学生提供跨学科的综合培训。pi还将把研究成果转化为K-12教育的宣传材料和活动。pi将与当地一所高中和巴尔的摩科学中心（该中心向所有巴尔的摩公立学校的学生提供免费入学服务）合作，帮助扩大巴尔的摩对STEM的参与，巴尔的摩是一个主要代表性不足的弱势人口城市。从这项工作中获得的基本理解将为配备振动传感器的机器人的创建提供信息，这些振动传感器能够主动振动传感，用于远程监测悬浮结构（例如悬索桥、电力线和卫星和空间站上的在轨空间系绳）中的目标（例如，损坏、异物、碎片）。这些机器人可以帮助取代人类从事维护国家基础设施健康所需的危险任务。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Substrate-borne vibrations are a ubiquitous modality of information that animals employ for sensing and communication. It is more sensitive to physical constraints than other sensory modalities, since vibrations must propagate through an often-heterogeneous physical environment and the animal itself before reaching the sensors. Many animals display active behavior or even interact with their target during sensing using this modality, yet the physical principles governing these processes are not well understood. In this award the investigators will study a model extended sensory system composed of a spider, a web, and a target (prey, mate, invader, etc.), and address the benefits of active behavior for modulation of vibration sensing. Orb-weaver spiders are one of the largest family of spiders (3000+ species) and use sensors on their legs to sense vibrations from the target propagating through the web and their own legs. Despite their vast evolutionary diversity, many orb-weaver spider species display common behavioral strategies of modulating web building and adjusting leg posture when a target is present to enhance vibration sensing, suggesting the crucial role of underlying physical principles in shaping the evolution of their behavior.The investigators will explore in a model organism (Uloborus diversus) how active modulation of leg posture by the spider can affect its vibration sensing of the target on orb webs. The approach to the problem will integrate biological experiments, which will quantitatively characterize leg posture behavior and web vibrations, with robophysical and simulation modeling, which will vary system parameters systematically to discover physical principles. The research will uncover in a model system how animals can take advantage of the physics of vibrations in both the physical environment (web) and biological media (spider itself) using active behaviors. This research will advance the physics of behavior by discovering the physical principles that govern behavior in naturalistic environments. This research will also expand the field of biological active sensing by adding understanding of how animals actively use behaviors to modulate a built substrate as part of the sensing system. This project will provide interdisciplinary, integrative training for students across all levels from PhD to high school in engineering and biology labs. The PIs will also convert research results into outreach materials and activities for K-12 education. The PIs will collaborate with a local high school and Baltimore Science Center (which offers free access to all Baltimore Public School students) to help broaden participation in STEM in Baltimore, a city with a primarily under-represented, disadvantaged population. The fundamental understanding from this work will inform the creation of robots equipped with vibration sensors capable of active vibration sensing for remote monitoring of targets (e.g., damage, foreign objects, debris) in suspended structures (e.g., suspension bridges, powerlines, and in-orbit space tethers on satellites and space stations). These robots could help replace humans from dangerous tasks that are required for maintaining the health of the Nation’s infrastructure.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.