https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2020.0569

I haven’t read the entire paper, but I found it from a piece in Scientific American.

“Spider legs seem to have minds of their own. According to findings published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, each leg functions as a semi-independent “computer”, with sensors that read the immediate environment and trigger movements accordingly. This autonomy helps the arachnids quickly spin perfect webs with minimal brain use. The study authors simulated surprisingly simple rules to govern this behaviour – which could eventually be applied to robotics…..Vollrath and his co-author, Thiemo Krink, then a computer scientist at Aarhus University, filmed and digitized the movements of several cross spiders, each with partially regenerated, half-length legs at certain positions. These spiders built webs as quickly and perfectly as those with with full-length legs; if the brain were computing how to compensate for shorter legs, the researchers say, they would have seen tiny but measurable delays in operation. Instead the study suggests a spider’s leg receives basic brain commands but adjusts its movements based on local input from sensors, which include hairs and slit in the body covering.”

buffy said:

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2020.0569

I haven’t read the entire paper, but I found it from a piece in Scientific American.

“Spider legs seem to have minds of their own. According to findings published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, each leg functions as a semi-independent “computer”, with sensors that read the immediate environment and trigger movements accordingly. This autonomy helps the arachnids quickly spin perfect webs with minimal brain use. The study authors simulated surprisingly simple rules to govern this behaviour – which could eventually be applied to robotics…..Vollrath and his co-author, Thiemo Krink, then a computer scientist at Aarhus University, filmed and digitized the movements of several cross spiders, each with partially regenerated, half-length legs at certain positions. These spiders built webs as quickly and perfectly as those with with full-length legs; if the brain were computing how to compensate for shorter legs, the researchers say, they would have seen tiny but measurable delays in operation. Instead the study suggests a spider’s leg receives basic brain commands but adjusts its movements based on local input from sensors, which include hairs and slit in the body covering.”

Each leg with an independent computer.

Lends credence to the idea that some dinosaurs had a second brain in their pelvis. For separate control of their hind legs.

For octopus: “there is a small brain in each of their eight arms — a cluster of nerve cells that biologists say controls movement. This allows the arms to work independently of each other, yet together toward the same goal.”

As for inspiring soft robotics – all biomimicry does, but this looks particularly promising.