Effects of sensorimotor delays and muscle force capacity limits on the performance of feedforward and feedback control in animals of different sizes

Abstract Animals rely on both feedforward and feedback control for perturbation responses. When comparing animals of different sizes, we find that several features that affect perturbation responses change—larger animals have longer sensorimotor time delays, heavier body segments and proportionally weaker muscles. We used simple computational models to compare fast perturbation response times under feedforward and feedback control, as a function of animal size. We developed two tasks representing common perturbation response scenarios in animal locomotion: a distributed mass pendulum approximating swing limb repositioning (swing task), and an inverted pendulum approximating whole body posture recovery (posture task). First, we used a normalized feedback control system to show how feedback response times can either be limited by the force generation capacity of muscles (force-limited), or by sensorimotor delays which constrain the maximum feedback gains that can be used to produce stable responses (delay-limited). Next, we used more detailed scaled models which represent the full-size range of terrestrial mammals and parameterized the sensorimotor delays, maximum muscle forces, and inertial properties using published scaling relationships from literature. Across animal size and in both tasks, we found that feedback control was primarily delay-limited—the fastest responses used a fraction of the available muscle force capacity. Feedforward control, which is able to fully activate muscles and produce faster responses—was about four times faster than feedback control in the smallest animals, and around two times faster in the largest animals. For rapid perturbation responses, feedback control appears ineffective for terrestrial mammals of all sizes, as the fastest response times exceeded available movement times, while feedforward control did not. Thus, feedforward control is more effective for reacting quickly to sudden and large perturbations in animals of all sizes.