Importance and methods to control, vary, and characterize mud strength for studying locomotion

Source: arXiv cs.RO·2026-09-02 12:00Publish time unverified

arXiv:2609.00563v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Animals and robots encounter mud at the water-land interface. Like sand, mud can stay solid or flow like a fluid. Unlike sand, the yield strength of mud at which solid-fluid transitions occur depends on not only the amount of solid relative to fluid (water in mud, air in dry sand), but also how much coarse grains and fine clay are within the solid.