Analysis of Rowing Force of the Water Strider Middle Leg by Direct Measurement Using a Bio-Appropriating Probe and by Indirect Measurement Using Image Analysis

Abstract

Rowing force of the middle leg of a water strider is one of the important factors affecting water repellency and applications in biomimetics, biomechanics, and biology. However, many previous studies have been based on estimated leg rowing force and lack some credibility. Therefore, we tried to measure leg rowing force directly by a force transducer. In this article, we report the rowing force of water striders obtained by direct and indirect measurements. In the direct measurement, water striders were set onto a sensor system and the rowing force of a middle leg of the set water striders was directly measured using a bio-appropriating probe (BAP), a kind of hook. In the indirect measurement, water striders were not fixed and the rowing force of locomoting water striders was evaluated by image analysis using a high-speed camera. As a result, we determined the rowing force by the direct measurement to be 955 μN, while the rowing force by the indirect measurement was 493 μN. We considered that the indirect measurement might lack some credibility because half the propellant energy was lost in the indirect force measurement due to various other factors.