Insights for robotic design from studies of the control of abdominal position in crayfish.

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Studies of the control of position and movement of the abdomen of crayfish illustrate a number of features of invertebrate sensory-motor systems that have implications for their use to inform robotic design. We use the abdominal slow extensor motor system to illustrate three of them here: first, the way in which a behaviorally flexible length-servo device can be achieved with very few elements; second, the importance of knowledge of the biological and behavioral context in which the elements operate; third, that design solutions resulting from natural selection have been constrained by the previous evolutionary history of the animal, which can affect the outcomes in ways that may not be immediately apparent in a design context.