NW-GRID provides the muscle to determine dinosaur running speeds
Researchers at the University of Manchester have successfully exploited the processing power available from the NW-GRID network of computers to estimate the maximum running speeds of several existing and extinct animals. The modelling was validated using experimental data for humans, ostriches and emus and then applied to Tyrannosaurus rex, Allosaurus, Dilophosaurus, Velociraptor, and Compsognathus. Humans were the slowest of the species modelled, although a top sprinter could outpace the two big meat eaters.
One of the novel aspects of this study, performed by Drs Bill Sellers and Phil Manning, is that it defined a musculoskeletal model for each animal and then used this direct, or first principles, model to see how quickly each would run. Previous running models for dinosaurs have been based upon running models for existing animals, which can bias the results. The direct modelling approach to bipedal motion relies heavily on many repeated computer runs to determine parameters such as optimal muscle activation patterns. This is computationally intensive. The relatively simple model employed in this study still had 61 dimensions in its search space. More realistic models, employing more detailed musculoskeletal models or better estimates of soft tissue parameters would generate more accurate results, but would also increase the computational requirements considerably.
Approximately 170,000 core hours of computation were performed over the period autumn 2006 – winter 2007 for this study using NW-GRID Beowulf clusters. These were supplied to the consortium by Sun Microsystems and Streamline-Computing. Performance came from AMD Opteron Model 275 processors, each of which has two processing cores. Typically 40 or 80 cores would be used in a modelling run, although up to 300 cores could be used at once were that many available.
The modelling approach used in this study has been exploited in several collaborative ventures. This includes work with Professor Robin Crompton, Department of Human Anatomy, University of Liverpool, on the most efficient (and hence most likely) form of bipedal motion of Australopithecus afarensis. The work also has several practical applications. For example, biologically accurate models of the limb musculoskeletal system can be used to improve orthopaedic surgery and prosthesis design and a better understanding of the role of gait parameters feeds back into virtual robotics and the design of walking robots. The study results were reported at a Society for Experimental Biologists conference in Glasgow at the end of March and in a paper published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B in August 2007.
Notes to editors
- NW-GRID is a collaboration involving STFC Daresbury Laboratory and the Universities of Lancaster, Liverpool and Manchester funded by the North West Development Agency (NWDA). Its objectives are to establish a world-class activity in the deployment and exploitation of Grid middleware in the North West of England and to realise the capabilities of the Grid in leading edge academic, industrial and business computing applications. NW-GRID will receive £5,000,000 in direct NWDA funding over four years, starting from April 2004 from which it will leverage a further £15,000,000 investment in people and equipment.
Further information can be found on the Animal Simulation Laboratory (ASL) website or on the Primate Evolution and Morphology Group (PREMOG) website. The PREMOG is based in the Division of Human Anatomy and Cell Biology of the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Liverpool.