Bio-Inspired Flexible Propulsors for Fast, Efficient Swimming: What Physics are we missing?
Abstract
Biology offers a rich source of inspiration for the design of novel propulsors with the potential to overcome and surpass the performance of traditional propulsors. Our efforts to develop a deeper understanding of the physics of swimming in biological systems has produced extraordinary results and has implications in the development of engineered propulsors that demonstrate the high speed and low cost of transport of animals such as tuna. This work has resulted in new fundamental and transformative knowledge of high-performance swimming, culminating in our design of underwater bio-inspired scientific demonstrators (Tunabot and Tunabot Flex [Zhu, et al., 2019; White, et al., 2020]). These swim with high speeds close to those of the routine swimming speeds of tuna and with energetic expenditure measurements closer to biology than any other swimming robotic platformthey represent state-of-the-art in the fieldof bio-inspired swimming robots. This proposal will focus on not only closing this gap but surpassing performance metrics demonstrated by biology and traditional propulsive mechanisms. Our fundamental understanding of the flow physics of high-performance swimming fish and lift-based propulsion has highlighted key areas of research to target to achieve superior propulsive performance. Theseare:Combined computational and experimental study to quantify the performance boost of fin-fin interactions in the established scientific demonstrator. Design and integrate an adaptive stiffness mechanism, simulating the biological function of the peduncle of tuna, to improve performance. Develop flexible artificial propulsors that have been optimized for speed and efficiency using previously developed results by the team and integrate into the scientific demonstrator to quantify performance improvements.Guided by parameter space studies of in-line swimming propulsors, quantify performance metrics of both swimming fishes and scientific demonstrators to show optimality and impact of in-line swimming on speed and cost of transport. Our expert team of scientists and engineers has had a huge impact on the current state-of-knowledge and are primed to address these remaining questions on high performance swimming. This teamled by Bart-Smith (UVA) and includes participants from the University of Virginia, Harvard University, Princeton University, West Chester University, and Lehigh Universityhas a proven track record of synergistic research between marine biology, experimental and numerical hydrodynamics, optimization, materials and active structures, and robotics. The taxonomic fish families Scombridae (tuna and mackerel) and Salmonidae (trout) will be the focus of this continued biological study. Our efforts will build on our new understanding of the science of fluid-structure interactions of three-dimensional bio-inspired propulsive devices, the design tools developed to explore the design space of such systems, and the technologies developed to push the performance boundaries of underwater swimming to beyond our biological precedent. The cost estimate for the proposed research is $1M for the 1-yr extension period.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 15, 2021
- Source ID
- N000142112210
Entities
People
- Hilary Bart-Smith
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Virginia