Kinematics of Stewart Platform Explains Three-Dimensional Movement of Honeybee’s Abdominal Structure

Abstract

The Stewart platform is a typical parallel mechanism, used extensively in flight simulators with six degrees of freedom. It is rarely found in animals and has never been reported to regulate and control physiological activities. Now an equivalent Stewart platform structure is found in the honey bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Apis mellifera L.) abdomen to explain its three-dimensional movements. The stereoscope and scanning electron microscope are used to observe the internal structures of honeybees’ abdomens. Experimental observations show that the muscles and intersegmental membranes connect the terga with the sterna and guarantee the honey bee abdominal movements. From the perspective of mechanics, a Stewart platform is evolved from the lateral connection structure of the honey bee abdomen, and the intrasegmental muscles between the sternum and tergum function as actuators between planes of the Stewart platform. The extraordinary structure provides various advantages for a honey bee to complete a variety of physiological activities. This equivalent Stewart platform structure can also be used to illustrate the flexible abdominal movements of other insects with the segmental abdomen.

Parallel Mechanism Composed of Abdominal Cuticles and Muscles Simulates the Complex and Diverse Movements of Honey Bee (Apis mellifera L.) Abdomen

“…The muscle is equivalent to an actuator in engineering based on its function ( Mill 1964 , Wasserthal and Wasserthal 1980 ). The muscle can be considered as a prismatic pair, which is equivalent to a variable length limb ( Liang et al 2019 ). The junction between the muscle and plate can be regarded as a spherical pair.…”

“…The discovery of the bending mechanism was helpful for us to understand the behavioral activities of honey bee such as mating. To further reveal the function of muscles on abdominal motions, Liang et al (2019) studied the particular assembles format of muscles and cuticle, and found that kinematics of Stewart platform could explains three-dimensional movement between the sternum and tergum in the same abdominal segment of honeybee. Besides, we also found that there were a dozen of muscles between the adjacent segments, and bionic design of morphing nose cone for aerospace vehicle based on the deformable mechanism of honeybee abdomen a parallel-serial mechanism was performed ( Liang et al 2020 ).…”

A novel bioinspired mechanism to elucidate the movement flexibility of the honeybee abdomen driven by muscles

“…According to the myofilament sliding theory proposed by Huxley, muscle contraction is mainly caused by the relative sliding between thick and thin filaments (Huxley, 1969). Further considering the movement flexibility of muscles, the muscles can be equivalent to prismatic pairs, while the connection between the muscles and cuticle can be equivalent to spherical hinges (Liang et al ., 2019; Liang et al ., 2020). Thus, combined with the structural similarity principle of bionics and the mechanism theory, we propose an analogous EUM inspired by the muscular driving unit of the honeybee abdomen, as shown in Fig.…”

“…Investigations of the anatomical structure have been used to uncover the movement mechanism of the honeybee abdomen (Carreck et al ., ; Zhao et al ., 2015; Zhao et al ., 2016; Liang et al ., 2019; Liang et al ., 2020). These studies identified the critical structures of muscles and the folded intersegmental membranes that create the movement flexibility of the honeybee abdomen.…”

“…These bionic mechanisms can be used to realize biological characteristics and provide a reference for engineering applications (Zhang et al ., 2019; Liang et al ., 2020). On this basis, the parallel mechanism of the Stewart platform was proposed to explain the movement mechanism of the honeybee abdomen (Liang et al ., 2019; Liang et al ., 2020). However, it is very different from the actual distributed muscle drive mechanism, which limits its biological advantages.…”