User:Davidcofer73/AnimatLab

AnimatLab is a neuromechanical software tool that combines biomechanical simulation and biologically realistic neural networks. You can build the body of an animal, robot, or other machine and place it in a virtual 3-D world where the physics of its interaction with the environment are accurate and realistic. You can then design a nervous system that controls the behavior of the body in the environment. The software currently has support for simple firing rate and integrate and fire spiking neural models. In addition, there a number of different synapse model types that can be used to connect the various neural models to produce your nervous system.

On the biomechanics side there is support for a variety of different rigid body types, including a custom polygon mesh that can be made to match skeletal structures exactly. The biomechanics system also has a Hill muscle model and a stretch receptor model. The muscle models allow the nervous system to produce movements around joints. In addition, there are also motorized joints for those interested in controlling robots or other biomimetic machines. This allows the user to generate incredibly complicated Artificial lifeforms that are based on real biological systems.

Neuromechanical simulations built using AnimatLab have shown how mechanical resonance in the cat leg enables a simple neural central pattern generator to produce the rapid oscillatory movements of the paw shake , how the motor program that drives kicking in locust also can drive the jump, how locusts control tumbling while jumping , and how stable walking gaits in the crayfish result from mechanical coupling of the legs to each other through the body.

AnimatLab was developed in the Georgia State University laboratory of Dr. Donald H. Edwards, and first released to the public in 2009. The AnimatLab software is free and it includes free C++ source code for all of the biomechanical and neural network models mentioned above. It was built using a modular architecture that allows other users to add new components, like new biomechanical or neural models. There are also extensive help pages and over 50 video tutorials describing how to use the application and explaining the details of biomechanics and biologically realistic neural networks.