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Intermittent sliding locomotion of a two-link body

We study the possibility of efficient intermittent locomotion for two-link bodies that slide by changing their interlink angle periodically in time. We find that the anisotropy ratio of the sliding friction coefficients is a key parameter, while solutions have a simple scaling dependence on the friction coefficients' magnitudes. With very anisotropic friction, efficient motions involve coasting in low-drag states, with rapid and asymmetric power and recovery strokes. As the anisotropy decreases, burst-and-coast motions change to motions with long power strokes and short recovery strokes, and roughly constant interlink angle velocity on each. These motions are seen in the spaces of sinusoidal and power-law motions described by two and five parameters, respectively. Allowing the duty cycle to vary greatly increases the motions' efficiency compared to the case of symmetric power and recovery strokes. Allowing further variations in the concavity of the power and recovery strokes improves the efficiency further only when friction is very anisotropic. Near isotropic friction, a variety of optimally efficient motions are found with more complex waveforms. Many of the optimal sinusoidal and power-law motions are similar to those that we find with an optimization search in the space of more general periodic functions (truncated Fourier series). When we increase the resistive force's power-law dependence on velocity, the optimal motions become smoother, slower, and less efficient, particularly near isotropic friction.