We report on experimental and theoretical studies of the fluctuation-induced escape time from a metastable state of a nanomechanical Duffing resonator in a cryogenic environment. By tuning in situ the nonlinear coefficient γ we could explore a wide range of the parameter space around the bifurcation point, where the metastable state becomes unstable. We measured in a relaxation process the dist...

Optimal escape theory states that animals should counterbalance the costs and benefits of flight when escaping from a potential predator. However, in apparent contradiction with this well-established optimality model, birds and mammals generally initiate escape soon after beginning to monitor an approaching threat, a phenomena codified as the "Flush Early and Avoid the Rush" (FEAR) hypothesis. ...

Nowadays there are a wide range of techniques for terrain generation, but are focused on providing realistic terrains often neglecting the aesthetic appeal. The Genetic Terrain Programming technique, based on evolutionary design with Genetic Programming, allows designers to evolve terrains according to their aesthetic feelings or desired features. This technique evolves TPs (Terrain Programmes)...

The direction and speed of escape locomotion can affect the ability of an animal to evade a predator, and variation in habitat structure often affects speed. Consequently, the escape paths chosen by animals may affect their performance and subsequent survival. Arboreal locomotion is well suited for gaining insight into the choice of escape routes because of the discrete paths formed by branches...

0019-1035/$ see front matter 2009 Elsevier Inc. A doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2009.06.005 * Corresponding author. Address: Universität B Sidlerstasse 5, 3013 Bern, Switzerland. E-mail addresses: [email protected] Lefort). The Peneus and Amphitrites Paterae region of Mars displays large areas of smooth, geologically young terrains overlying a rougher and older topography. These terrains ma...

Generating realistic-looking but interesting terrains quickly is a great challenge. We present RiverLand, an efficient system for terrain synthesis. RiverLand creates a realistic-looking terrain by first generating river networks over the land. Then, the terrain is created to be consistent with the river networks. In this way, the terrains created have a proper drainage basin, an important feat...

The dynamical behaviour of the forced escape oscillator, which depends on the parameter values we considered, have been studied numerically using the techniques of phase portraits and Poincar'{e} sections. Also, we employed perturbation methods such as Lindstedt's method to obtain the frequency-amplitude relation of escape oscillator.

This paper presents a method for visualisation of large terrains in real-time. The amount of data when handling large terrains can exceed video memory, the result is a low frame rate. Our method uses a quadtree-based approach to exclude unnecessary data from the rendering process and reduce the level of detail at need. Another aim is to let the GPU perform as much of processing as possible, lea...

ABSTRACT Amongst tetrapods, mechanoreceptors on the feet establish a sense of body placement and help to facilitate posture biomechanics. Mechanoreceptors are necessary for stabilizing while navigating through changing terrains or responding sudden change in mass orientation. Lizards such as leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius) employ autotomy – voluntary detachment portion tail escape predat...