During exploratory behavior, rats brush and tap their whiskers against objects, and the mechanical signals so generated constitute the primary sensory variables upon which these animals base their vibrissotactile perception of the world. To date, however, we lack a general dynamic model of the vibrissa that includes the effects of inertia, damping, and collisions. We simulated vibrissal dynamics to compute the time-varying forces and bending moment at the vibrissa base during both noncontact (free-air) whisking and whisking against an object (collision). Results show the following: (1) during noncontact whisking, mechanical signals contain components at both the whisking frequency and also twice the whisking frequency (the latter could code whisking speed); (2) when rats whisk rhythmically against an object, the intrinsic dynamics of the vibrissa can be as large as many of the mechanical effects of the collision, however, the axial force could still generate responses that reliably indicate collision based on thresholding; and (3) whisking velocity will have only a small effect on the transient response generated during a whisker-object collision. Instead, the transient response will depend in large part on how the rat chooses to decelerate its vibrissae after the collision. The model allows experimentalists to estimate error bounds on quasi-static descriptions of vibrissal shape, and its predictions can be used to bound realistic expectations from neurons that code vibrissal sensing. We discuss the implications of these results under the assumption that primary sensory neurons of the trigeminal ganglion are sensitive to various combinations of mechanical signals.

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A system of coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equations describes pulse propagation in weakly birefringent optical fibers. Soliton solutions of this system are found numerically through the shooting method. We employ Poincaré surface of section plots-a standard dynamical systems approach-to analyze the phase space behavior of these solutions and neighboring trajectories. Chaotic behavior around the solitons is apparent and suggests dynamical instability. A Lyapunov stability analysis confirms this result. Thus, solitons exist in the midst of chaos.

Abstract-This paper presents existence and uniqueness results for a propagative model of simultaneous impacts that is guaranteed to conserve energy and momentum in the case of elastic impacts with extensions to perfectly plastic and inelastic impacts. A corresponding time-stepping algorithm that guarantees conservation of continuous energy and discrete momentum is developed, also with extensions to plastic and inelastic impacts. The model is illustrated in simulation using billiard balls and a two-dimensional legged robot as examples; the latter is optimized over geometry and gait parameters to achieve unique simultaneous impacts.Note to Practitioners-Simultaneous impacts are a common occurrence in manufacturing and robotic applications. Simulationbased techniques predicting the motion of a mechanical system subject to simultaneous impacts often use numerical routines that make algorithmic assumptions about impact in order to make the simulation more tractable. Such assumptions have the potential to significantly influence the simulation outcome and may even invalidate results. This paper provides tools for simulating simultaneous impacts, verifying a simulation that deals with simultaneous impacts, and designing a system so that the simulation will be less dynamically sensitive to indeterminacy in simultaneous impact.

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