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The Swan's Neck |
 | | The swan uses its neck as though it is continuous and therefore has an infinite number of degrees of freedom, with little cognitive load. |
 | | The key is that the configuration of the neck is determined by its curvature, c, which varies smoothly as a function of position, s, along the neck. |
 | | In order to move the neck from one configuration to another, the curvature profile is changed, again smoothly, as represented by the continuous function c(s,t). |
| www.cs.utexas.edu /users/qr/robotics/swans-neck.html (876 words) |
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