Session: 06-06: Bioinspired Structures

Paper Number: 111209

111209 - Investigating the Effects of Eccentricity on the Dynamics of Spider Webs 

Spiders use their webs for more than capturing and retaining prey, as they monitor the vibration of the web to localize and classify mass. Over millions of years of evolution, spiders have modified the design of their webs to improve monitoring. Better processing of vibration results in more successful captures, which leads to a higher chance of survival. Biologists observe that a spider web operates as an Extended Cognition of the spider's central nervous system. Here a web as Extend Cognition would mean that it filters the vibration in the web such that localizing and classifying mass is expedited. In this work, we propose that this extension is enabled through the characteristic design patterns specific to orb webs. We show this by first mapping the resonant frequencies as a function of a mass in the web. This is achieved through a numerical model in which iteratively a mass is attached to a different node. This process is repeated for multiple web designs, where the characteristic design patterns are gradually changed. In this specific work, we focus on the effects of eccentricity. This comes from the observation that generally the radials in orb webs do not meet in the optical center of the web, but slightly above it. We find that just a little bit of eccentricity results in intricate patterns in the resonant frequency mappings. We believe that spiders use these intricate patterns for decoding the location of masses. Using the lessons we learn from the design characteristics of the orb web, and the developed numerical model for this investigation, we believe that we can design new smart sensors for impact detection in a wide area of applications.

Presenting Author: Thijs Masmeijer University of Washington

Presenting Author Biography: Thijs is getting his Ph.D. at the Aeronautics and Astronautics department at the University of Washington. He is a researcher at the illimited LAB, a dynamics lab driven by bio-inspiration. Through this lab Thijs is exploring his dissertation inspired by the signaling properties of spider webs.