Hydrodynamics of Biomimetic Marine Propulsion and Trends in Computational Simulations

[Abstract] The aim of the present paper is to provide the state of the works in the field of hydrodynamics and computational simulations to analyze biomimetic marine propulsors. Over the last years, many researchers postulated that some fish movements are more efficient and maneuverable than traditional rotary propellers, and the most relevant marine propulsors which mimic fishes are shown in the present work. Taking into account the complexity and cost of some experimental setups, numerical models offer an efficient, cheap, and fast alternative tool to analyze biomimetic marine propulsors. Besides, numerical models provide information that cannot be obtained using experimental techniques. Since the literature about trends in computational simulations is still scarce, this paper also recalls the hydrodynamics of the swimming modes occurring in fish and summarizes the more relevant lines of investigation of computational models

Review of Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis in Biomimetic Applications for Underwater Vehicles

Biomimetics, which draws inspiration from nature, has emerged as a key approach in the development of underwater vehicles. The integration of this approach with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has further propelled research in this field. CFD, as an effective tool for dynamic analysis, contributes significantly to understanding and resolving complex fluid dynamic problems in underwater vehicles. Biomimetics seeks to harness innovative inspiration from the biological world. Through the imitation of the structure, behavior, and functions of organisms, biomimetics enables the creation of efficient and unique designs. These designs are aimed at enhancing the speed, reliability, and maneuverability of underwater vehicles, as well as reducing drag and noise. CFD technology, which is capable of precisely predicting and simulating fluid flow behaviors, plays a crucial role in optimizing the structural design of underwater vehicles, thereby significantly enhancing their hydrodynamic and kinematic performances. Combining biomimetics and CFD technology introduces a novel approach to underwater vehicle design and unveils broad prospects for research in natural science and engineering applications. Consequently, this paper aims to review the application of CFD technology in the biomimicry of underwater vehicles, with a primary focus on biomimetic propulsion, biomimetic drag reduction, and biomimetic noise reduction. Additionally, it explores the challenges faced in this field and anticipates future advancements

Engineering derivatives from biological systems for advanced aerospace applications

The present study consisted of a literature survey, a survey of researchers, and a workshop on bionics. These tasks produced an extensive annotated bibliography of bionics research (282 citations), a directory of bionics researchers, and a workshop report on specific bionics research topics applicable to space technology. These deliverables are included as Appendix A, Appendix B, and Section 5.0, respectively. To provide organization to this highly interdisciplinary field and to serve as a guide for interested researchers, we have also prepared a taxonomy or classification of the various subelements of natural engineering systems. Finally, we have synthesized the results of the various components of this study into a discussion of the most promising opportunities for accelerated research, seeking solutions which apply engineering principles from natural systems to advanced aerospace problems. A discussion of opportunities within the areas of materials, structures, sensors, information processing, robotics, autonomous systems, life support systems, and aeronautics is given. Following the conclusions are six discipline summaries that highlight the potential benefits of research in these areas for NASA's space technology programs

출력 토크 조절이 가능한 Scotch yoke 메커니즘

학위논문 (석사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 : 기계항공공학부, 2013. 2. 조규진.The robotic fish using servomotor was generally difficult to operate high frequency because the servo motor decreases the velocity to switch the direction of the tail fin. To solve this problem, various researchers have tried to use the Scotch yoke mechanism with DC motor for robotic fish. The Scotch yoke mechanism converts the rotating motion of motor into the reciprocating motion. However, in this mechanism, the torque of the motor with scotch yoke mechanism is changed in terms of the phase of the tail fin while the DC motor maintains the torque constantly. Thus, the objective of this paper is to regulate the motor output torque by using the adjustable Scotch yoke mechanism. This mechanism uses springs to store the motor torque and cam mechanism to release this torque at desired moment. We analyzed a kinematic model of the Scotch yoke mechanism to propose a method of designing the part of the adjustable Scotch yoke mechanism. In addition, we experiment to measure the thrust of tail fin while the equal input voltage of controller is supplied respectively and compare the conventional mechanism and adjustable Scotch yoke mechanism by considering the compliance of the fin. As a result, we conclude that the adjustable scotch yoke mechanism enables the propulsion system to improve the average thrust than conventional scotch yoke mechanism during the equivalent power consumption. Therefore, based on these result, the high speed robotic fish can be made by applying the adjustable Scotch yoke mechanism which regulated the output torque.Abstract i Contents iii List of Tables v List of Figures vi Chapter 1. Introduction 1 Chapter 2. The Propulsion System with Scotch Yoke Mechanism 5 2.1 Characteristics of the Scotch Yoke Mechanism 5 2.2 Kinematic Model of Scotch Yoke Mechanism 8 Chapter 3. Adjustable Scotch Yoke Mechanism 12 3.1 Design of Adjustable Scotch Yoke Mechanism 12 3.2 Modeling of the Crank Wheel 16 3.3 Design of the Scotch Yoke Mechanism 20 Chapter 4 Mothod 23 4.1 Experimental Procedure 23 4.2 Apparatus 25 Chapter 5. Rusults and Discussion 27 5.1 Experimental Result 27 5.2 Analysis of the Experimental Results 28 Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future Work 34 Bibliography 36 국문초록 40Maste

Control and guidance systems for the navigation of a biomimetic autonomous underwater vehicle

The field of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) has increased dramatically in size and scope over the past three decades. Application areas for AUVs are numerous and varied, from deep sea exploration, to pipeline surveillance to mine clearing. The main concept behind this work was the design and the implementation of a control and guidance system for the navigation of a biomimetic AUV. In particular, the AUV analysed in this project tries to imitate the appearance and approximate the swimming method of an Atlantic Salmon and, for this reason, has been called RoboSalmo

Energy Based Control System Designs for Underactuated Robot Fish Propulsion

In nature through millions of years of evolution fish and cetaceans have developed fast efficient and highly manoeuvrable methods of marine propulsion. A recent explosion in demand for sub sea robotics, for conducting tasks such as sub sea exploration and survey has left developers desiring to capture some of the novel mechanisms evolved by fish and cetaceans to increase the efficiency of speed and manoeuvrability of sub sea robots. Research has revealed that interactions with vortices and other unsteady fluid effects play a significant role in the efficiency of fish and cetaceans. However attempts to duplicate this with robotic fish have been limited by the difficulty of predicting or sensing such uncertain fluid effects. This study aims to develop a gait generation method for a robotic fish with a degree of passivity which could allow the body to dynamically interact with and potentially synchronise with vortices within the flow without the need to actually sense them. In this study this is achieved through the development of a novel energy based gait generation tactic, where the gait of the robotic fish is determined through regulation of the state energy rather than absolute state position. Rather than treating fluid interactions as undesirable disturbances and `fighting' them to maintain a rigid geometric defined gait, energy based control allows the disturbances to the system generated by vortices in the surrounding flow to contribute to the energy of the system and hence the dynamic motion. Three different energy controllers are presented within this thesis, a deadbeat energy controller equivalent to an analytically optimised model predictive controller, a $H_\infty$ disturbance rejecting controller with a novel gradient decent optimisation and finally a error feedback controller with a novel alternative error metric. The controllers were tested on a robotic fish simulation platform developed within this project. The simulation platform consisted of the solution of a series of ordinary differential equations for solid body dynamics coupled with a finite element incompressible fluid dynamic simulation of the surrounding flow. results demonstrated the effectiveness of the energy based control approach and illustrate the importance of choice of controller in performance

4D Printing: The Development of Responsive Materials Using 3D-Printing Technology

Additive manufacturing, widely known as 3D printing, has revolutionized the production of biomaterials. While conventional 3D-printed structures are perceived as static, 4D printing introduces the ability to fabricate materials capable of self-transforming their configuration or function over time in response to external stimuli such as temperature, light, or electric field. This transformative technology has garnered significant attention in the field of biomedical engineering due to its potential to address limitations associated with traditional therapies. Here, we delve into an in-depth review of 4D-printing systems, exploring their diverse biomedical applications and meticulously evaluating their advantages and disadvantages. We emphasize the novelty of this review paper by highlighting the latest advancements and emerging trends in 4D-printing technology, particularly in the context of biomedical applications.The authors would like to acknowledge grants from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBACYT 20020150100056BA and PIDAE 2022 (Martín F. Desimone), and from CONICET PIP 0826 (Martín F. Desimone), and PIBAA 28720210100962CO (Sofia Municoy), which supported this work

Developing High Performance Linear Carangiform Swimming

This thesis examines the linear swimming motion of Carangiform fish, and investigates how to improve the swimming performance of robotic fish within the fields of kinematic modeling and mechanical engineering, in a successful attempt to replicate the high performance of real fish. Intensive research was conducted in order to study the Carangiform swimming motion, where observational studies of the common carp were undertaken. Firstly, a full-body length Carangiform swimming motion is proposed to coordinate the anterior, mid-body and posterior displacements in an attempt to reduce the large kinematic errors in the existing free swimming robotic fish. It optimizes the forces around the centre of mass and initiates the starting moment of added mass upstream therefore increasing performance, in terms of swimming speed. The introduced pattern is experimentally tested against the traditional approach (of posterior confined body motion). A first generation robotic fish is devised with a novel mechanical drive system operating in the two swimming patterns. It is shown conclusively that by coordinating the full-body length of the Carangiform swimming motion a significant increase in linear swimming speed is gained over the traditional posterior confined wave form and reduces the large kinematic errors seen in existing free swimming robotic fish (Achieving the cruising speeds of real fish). Based on the experimental results of the first generation, a further three robotic fish are developed: (A) iSplash-OPTIMIZE: it becomes clear that further tuning of the kinematic parameters may provide a greater performance increase in the distance travelled per tail beat. (B) iSplash-II: it shows that combining the critical aspects of the mechanical drive system of iSplash-I with higher frequencies and higher productive forces can significantly increase maximum velocity. This prototype is able to outperform real Carangiform fish in terms of average maximum velocity (measured in body lengths/ second) and endurance, the duration that top speed is maintained. (C) iSplash-MICRO: it verifies that the mechanical drive system could be reduced in scale to improve navigational exploration, whilst retaining high-speed swimming performance. A small robotic fish is detailed with an equivalent maximum velocity (BL/s) to real fish

An holistic bio-inspired approach for improving the performance of unmanned underwater vehicles

PhD ThesisThis research, as a part of the Nature in Engineering for Monitoring the Oceans (NEMO) project, investigated bio-inspiration to improve the performance of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs). Initially, the capabilities and performance of current AUVs were compared with Biological Marine Systems (BMSs), i.e. marine animals (Murphy & Haroutunian, 2011). This investigation revealed significant superiority in the capabilities of BMSs which are desirable for UUVs, specifically in speed and manoeuvring. Subsequently, an investigation was carried out on BMSs to find means to make use of their superior functionality towards engineering improved UUVs. It was discovered that due to a mismatch between the purpose of each species evolution and the desired mission of an UUV, all desired characteristics are not evident in a single species. Moreover, due to the multi-functionality of biological systems, it is not possible to independently study each configuration. Therefore, an holistic approach to study BMSs as a system with numerous configurations was undertaken. An evolutionary search and selection algorithm was developed to obtain the myriad of biological information and adjust them to engineering needs (Haroutunian & Murphy, 2012). This Optimum System Selector (OSS) was implemented to output aspects of the appropriate design combination for a bio-inspired UUV, based on its specified mission. The OSS takes into account the energetic cost of the proposed combination as well as the trade-off between size, speed and manoeuvrability. Appreciating the uncertainty in existing measured biological data, the developed code was successfully verified in comparison with BMSs data. Energetic cost of transport is a key factor in selecting a design combination based on desired missions. This is key to the accuracy of the algorithm. Therefore, in another essential research theme, a sophisticated study has been carried out on the understanding, calculating, predicting and comparison of various biological and engineered underwater systems energetics (Phillips et al., 2012). The results of the OSS compared with existing AUVs, showed improvements in the overall capabilities. Therefore, this method is an excellent guide to transform complex biological data for the future design and development of UUVs.EPSRC

Bio-Inspired Robotics

Modern robotic technologies have enabled robots to operate in a variety of unstructured and dynamically-changing environments, in addition to traditional structured environments. Robots have, thus, become an important element in our everyday lives. One key approach to develop such intelligent and autonomous robots is to draw inspiration from biological systems. Biological structure, mechanisms, and underlying principles have the potential to provide new ideas to support the improvement of conventional robotic designs and control. Such biological principles usually originate from animal or even plant models, for robots, which can sense, think, walk, swim, crawl, jump or even fly. Thus, it is believed that these bio-inspired methods are becoming increasingly important in the face of complex applications. Bio-inspired robotics is leading to the study of innovative structures and computing with sensory–motor coordination and learning to achieve intelligence, flexibility, stability, and adaptation for emergent robotic applications, such as manipulation, learning, and control. This Special Issue invites original papers of innovative ideas and concepts, new discoveries and improvements, and novel applications and business models relevant to the selected topics of ``Bio-Inspired Robotics''. Bio-Inspired Robotics is a broad topic and an ongoing expanding field. This Special Issue collates 30 papers that address some of the important challenges and opportunities in this broad and expanding field