The stomach stores energy taken from food sources within the virtual world. When a mouth is close enough to a food source and it is stimulated it will transfer food from the source
into the stomach as caloric energy. At each time step a certain amount of energy is used by the
biomechanical organism. This value is controlled by the Base Consumption Rate
property. However, it is possible to increase the rate by stimulating the stomach. This allows you to increase the rate of energy consumption based on how much it moves.
For example, if you were to have a neuron that monitored the activity of the pacemakers controlling locomotion it could stimulate the stomach. If the animal is moving this will cause
it to use extra energy. If it is sitting still then there will be no additional stimulation and the base consumption rate will be used.
See the sections on the Odor Sensor,
Mouth, and Food Sources
for more information on this subject.
Stomach Properties
The location of the body relative to it's own origin. Each body part
has it's own local coordinate system which is the center of the body's parent
body part..
(click here for an example of the difference between local and world coordinates)
Default value: (0,0,0)
Acceptable range: -infinity - infinity
The location of the body relative to the world origin. The world origin
is center of the root body
(click here for an example of the difference between local and world coordinates)
Default value: The distance from the center of the root body part
Acceptable range: -infinity - infinity
Determines how much energy is used at each time step. This is how much is consumed regardless of what the animal is doing. It is best to
think of this as the sleeping or sitting rate of energy consuption. If you stimulate the stomach you can increase this rate. This lets you
increase energy consumption as it does more strenuous things like moving.
Default value: 10 Calories/s
Acceptable range: Any value greater than or equal to 0.
The color of the body. The user can enter a color value using R (Red) G
(Green) B (Blue) values or they can use the color chooser. To use
the color chooser, click on the color property and a dropdown arrow will appear.
 .
Click the drop down arrow to open up the color chooser and then select the
desired color.
Default value: Red (255, 0, 0)
Acceptable range: R: 0 - 255, G: 0 - 255, B: 0 - 255;
This is the amount of energy in the stomach when the simulation starts. This value is increased when it
eats and is decreased as it uses energy. If it reaches 0 then the animal is considered to be dead.
Default value: 10 KiloCalaories
Acceptable range: Any value greater than 0.
This is the maximum amount of energy that can be added to the stomach.
Default value: 100 KiloCalories
Acceptable range: Any value greater than the current energy level.
The name of this body
Default value: If it is the first body in an organism, "root".
Otherwise the name is "body_xx" where xx is the number in which the body was
added.
The transparency value determines how transparent a body part is. The higher the
transparency value the more transparent a body will be. 1 is fully
transparent and 0 is
fully opaque.
Default value: 0 (opaque)
Acceptable range: 0 - 1
Determines if this body is visible within the
simulation. If you set this value to false then this body will still be included
in the simulation and any dynamics related to this object will still be
calculated, but no graphics will be generated for the user. This property does
not effect visibility in the editor. If you wish to make something invisible in
the editor then you will need to use the alpha value described above.
Default value: True
Acceptable values: True, False
The radius of the mouth. This value can be directly entered by the
user or they can use the mouse by clicking on the curved portion of the cylinder
and dragging the mouse to the desired radius.
Default value: 1 cm
Acceptable range: any number greater than zero
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