The theme of this diploma thesis is design of walking excavator. Specifially, the thesis is focused on inovative possibility of remote controll and describe structural, technological and ergonomic aspects of this solution in respect of current trends.

The goal of the work is restore a quadruped walking spider-type robot named Jaromír. Part of the work is a body design that is then printed on a 3D printer. Another part is the design and creation of a new control board, which’ll include sensor equipment appropriate for robot operation. Subsequently, the thesis deals with the design of the tactile sensor’s and their fitting on the legs. The final part is implementation of the algorithm for robot control. The goal was to put the model to a state where it could be used for learning and presentations.

Despite the potential benefits of modifying behaviour according to changing ecological conditions, many populations comprise individuals that differ consistently in behaviour across situations, contexts and points in time (i.e. individuals show personality). If personalities are adaptive, the balance between consistency and flexibility of behavioural traits should reflect the ability of individuals to detect and respond to changing conditions in an appropriate and timely manner and, thus, depend upon the pace and predictability of changing conditions. We investigated the balance between individual consistency and flexibility in the subsocial spider Anelosimus studiosus by assaying boldness across the diel cycle and correlating these data with patterns of prey and threat abundance in the natural habitat. We found significant diel flexibility in boldness correlating with drastic and predictable changes in prey availability. Moreover, the strength of within-individual flexibility in boldness was comparable to the strength of rank-order consistency among individuals. We also found evidence that mean boldness level and among-individual variation in boldness are correlated with reproductive status. These data emphasize the interplay between behavioural consistency and flexibility and suggest that temporal characteristics of ecological conditions may be vital in assessing the strength, stability and adaptive value of animal personalities.

In this paper, we develop a stochastic differential equation model to simulate the movement of a social/subsocial spider species, Anelosimus studiosus, during prey capture using experimental data collected in a structured environment. In a subsocial species, females and their maturing offspring share a web and cooperate in web maintenance and prey capture. Furthermore, observations indicate these colonies change their positioning throughout the day, clustered during certain times of the day while spaced out at other times. One key question was whether or not the spiders spaced out "optimally" to cooperate in prey capture. In this paper, we first show the derivation of the model where experimental data is used to determine key parameters within the model. We then use this model to test the success of prey capture under a variety of different spatial configurations for varying colony sizes to determine the best spatial configuration for prey capture.

Spider attachrnentdisc silk fibers are spun into a viscous liquid that rapidly solidifies, gluing dragline silk fibers to substrates for locomotion or web construction. Here we report the identification and artificial spinning of a novel attachment disc glue silk fibroin, Pyriform Spidroin 2 (PySp2), from the golden orb weaver Nephila c/avipes. MS studies support PySp2 is a constituent of the pyriform gland that is spun into attachment discs. Analysis of the PySp2 protein architecture reveals sequence divergence relative to the other silk family members, including the cob weaver glue silk fibroin PySpl. PySp2 contains internal block repeats that consist of two sub-repeat units: one dominated by Ser, Gin and Ala, the other Pro-rich. Artificial spinning of recombinant PySp2 truncations shows that the Ser-Gln-Ala-rich sub-repeat is sufficient for the assembly of polymeric subunits and subsequent fiber formation. These studies support that both orb- and cob-weaving spiders have evolved highly polar block-repeat sequence with the ability to self-assemble into fibers, suggesting a strategy to allow fiber fabrication in the liquid environment of the attachment discs.

Spiders produce a diverse number of silk proteins that are well-known for their extraordinary mechanical and biological properties. Dragline silk has been the most prominent focus of research because of its exceptional high tensile strength and extensibility. In our research, we have focused on the characterization of small molecular weight proteins found within dragline and tubuliform silks. Within the black widow spider, Lactrodectus hesperus, these proteins have been named Cysteine-Rich Protein (CRP) and determined to be a family of five individual proteins. The small protein identified within the tubuliform silks has been named Egg Case Protein 3 (ECP-3). In this study, recombinant expression of ECP-3 in the pET-19b-SUMO vector was to facilitate purification and development of an immunological reagent. Using western blot analysis, we have demonstrated that ECP-3 is efficiently expressed in bacteria. We also investigated CRP1 protein and its ability to bind MaSp1 components using pull down assays to determine potential interactions. No substantial biochemical evidence was produced to demonstrate protein-protein interactions between the two. Additionally, we show that using RT-PCR analysis from mRNAs collected from the major ampullate gland that transcript levels for CRP-family members from non-silked and a silked spider are different. CRP2 and CRP4 mRNA levels were shown to increase upon silking. Overall, the major findings of this thesis involved characterizing the ECP-3 protein found within tubuliform silks as well as determining the expression patterns for CRP-family members.

eDNA microarray technology has generated a tremendous amount of interest among biologists because of its promise to monitor the entire genome on a single chip, thus enabling researchers to have a better picture of the interaction among thousands of genes simultaneously. In the current study, this technology was used to print over 3,000 unknown genes from various silk glands of the black widow spider to profile their expression patterns and to identify novel candidates. Spiders are remarkable creatures because of their ability to make different silks, each with a specific function. Some of these silks have amazing mechanical properties, comparable to those of the finest synthetic materials. Several silk genes have been cloned from various spiders over the last few years, and the contribution of each of those genes in silk production has been identified. However, the majority of cellular and biochemical processes involved in silk manufacture remain a mystery. In our research, we attempt to identify genes that might be involved in silk assembly, on a global scale and investigate more about those genes and their interplay with other key biological molecules involved in silk manufacture. Our study showed that silking spiders for a certain period of time resulted in down-regulation of two important silk genes, ECP-1 and ECP-2. Both these genes are key molecules implicated for their role in maintaining the egg case architecture in the black widow spider.,-and we believe that these genes are also directly or indirectly involved in the manufacture of dragline silk. Microarray analyses also enable the discovery of several other interesting molecules, two of which could be accessory proteins involved in silk formation. Furthermore, in a separate study we also characterized a novel silk glue protein with unique ensemble repeats. In conclusion, we believe that the findings of this study will indeed be significant to silk researchers and material scientists alike and it will enhance our knowledge in understanding the mystery behind silk production.

Spider silk is one of the most remarkable materials produced in the natural world and its strength and extensibility are legendary. To date, the majority of studies have been performed on the following silks: dragline, capture spiral, and eggcase silk. The primary goal of this study was to characterize a lesser known silk type, called wrapping (swathing) silk, from Latrodectus hesperus. My research focused on elucidating the fibroins that make up the swathing silk. Perfonning MS/MS analyses on solubilized wrapping silk fibroins digested with trypsin, we demonstrate that a novel fibroin named AcSp !-like is present within wrapping silk. Consistent with this finding, SEM analyses reveal that wrapping silk is a composite material, containing at least three different diameter silk fibers. By using scanning electron micrographs, along with amino acid composition analyses and MS/MS analyses, we demonstrate wrapping material contains the fibroins AcSp1-like, MiSp1-like, MaSp1 and MaSp2. These are the first studies to reveal that minor, major and acinifonn silks are constituents of wrapping material.

Spider silk is renowned for its extraordinary mechanical properties, having a balance of high tensile strength and extensibility. To date, the majority of studies have focused on the production of dragline silks from synthetic spider silk gene products. Here we report the first mechanical analysis of synthetic egg case silk fibers spun from the Latrodectus hesperus tubuliform silk proteins, TuSp1 and ECP-2. We provide evidence that recombinant ECP-2 proteins can be spun into fibers that display mechanical properties similar to other synthetic spider silks. We also demonstrate that silks spun from recombinant thioredoxin-TuSp 1 fusion proteins that contain the conserved C-terminal domain exhibit increased extensibility and toughness when compared to the identical fibers spun from fusion proteins lacking the C-terminus. Mechanical analyses reveal that the properties of synthetic tubuliform silks can be modulated by altering the post-spin draw ratios of the fibers . Fibers subject to increased draw ratios showed elevated tensile strength and decreased extensibility, but maintained constant toughness. Wide-angle X-ray diffraction studies indicate that post-drawn fibers containing the Cterminal domain of TuSp 1 have more amorphous content when compared to fibers lacking the C-terminus. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that recombinant tubuliform spidroins that contain the conserved C-terminal domain with embedded protein tags can be effectively spun into fibers, resulting in similar tensile strength but increased extensibility relative to non-tagged recombinant dragline silk proteins spun from equivalently sized proteins.

No description available.