Modeling the undulatory locomotion of C. elegans based on the proprioceptive mechanism

Abstract

This paper provides an undulatory locomotion model of C. elegans to implement the chemotaxis behaviors based on the proprioceptive mechanism. The nervous system of C. elegans is modeled by a dynamic neural network (DNN) that involves two parts: head DNN and motor neurons. The body of C. elegans is represented as a multi-joint rigid link model with 11 links. The undulatory locomotion behavior is achieved by using the DNN to control the lengths of muscles on ventral and dorsal sides, and then using the muscle lengths to control the angles between two consecutive links. The propagation of undulatory wave is achieved by using proprioceptive mechanism, for which the cooperation between muscles and motor neurons is needed. Owing to the learning capability of DNN, a set of nonlinear functions that are designed to represent the chemotaxis behaviors of C. elegans are learned by the head DNN. The testing results show good performance of the locomotion model for the chemotaxis behaviors of finding food and avoiding toxin, as well as slight and Ω turns.