Underwater soft robotics, the benefit of body-shape variations in aquatic propulsion
Underwater soft robotics, the benefit of body-shape variations in aquatic propulsion
Aquatic organisms capable of undergoing extensive volume variation of their body during locomotion can benefit from increased thrust production. This is enabled by making use of not only the expulsion of mass from their body, as documented extensively in the study of pulsed-jet propulsion, but also from the recovery of kinetic energy via the variation of added mass. We use a simplified mechanical system, i.e. a shape-changing linear oscillator, to investigate the phenomenon of added-mass recovery. Our study proves that a deformable oscillator can be set in sustained resonance by exploiting the contribution from shape variation alone which, if appropriately modulated, can annihilate viscous drag. By confirming that a body immersed in a dense fluid which undergoes an abrupt change of its shape experiences a positive feedback on thrust, we prove that soft-bodied vehicles can be designed and actuated in such a way as to exploit their own body deformation to benefit of augmented propulsive forces.
37-46
Giorgio-Serchi, Francesco
8571dc14-19c1-4ed1-8080-d380736a6ffa
Weymouth, Gabriel
b0c85fda-dfed-44da-8cc4-9e0cc88e2ca0
2017
Giorgio-Serchi, Francesco
8571dc14-19c1-4ed1-8080-d380736a6ffa
Weymouth, Gabriel
b0c85fda-dfed-44da-8cc4-9e0cc88e2ca0
Giorgio-Serchi, Francesco and Weymouth, Gabriel
(2017)
Underwater soft robotics, the benefit of body-shape variations in aquatic propulsion.
In,
Laschi, Cecilia, Rossiter, Jonathan, Iida, Fumiya, Cianchetti, Matteo and Margheri, Laura
(eds.)
Soft Robotics: Trends, Applications and Challenges.
(Biosystems & Biorobotics, 17)
Cham, CH.
Springer Cham, .
(doi:10.1007/978-3-319-46460-2_6).
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Book Section
Abstract
Aquatic organisms capable of undergoing extensive volume variation of their body during locomotion can benefit from increased thrust production. This is enabled by making use of not only the expulsion of mass from their body, as documented extensively in the study of pulsed-jet propulsion, but also from the recovery of kinetic energy via the variation of added mass. We use a simplified mechanical system, i.e. a shape-changing linear oscillator, to investigate the phenomenon of added-mass recovery. Our study proves that a deformable oscillator can be set in sustained resonance by exploiting the contribution from shape variation alone which, if appropriately modulated, can annihilate viscous drag. By confirming that a body immersed in a dense fluid which undergoes an abrupt change of its shape experiences a positive feedback on thrust, we prove that soft-bodied vehicles can be designed and actuated in such a way as to exploit their own body deformation to benefit of augmented propulsive forces.
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Underwater Soft Robotics, the Benefit of Body-Shape Variations in Aquatic Propulsion
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e-pub ahead of print date: 22 September 2016
Published date: 2017
Organisations:
Fluid Structure Interactions Group
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 403108
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/403108
ISSN: 2195-3562
PURE UUID: 8a9cfa88-6341-451f-8130-dcb50267325a
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Date deposited: 24 Nov 2016 09:57
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:47
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Contributors
Author:
Francesco Giorgio-Serchi
Editor:
Cecilia Laschi
Editor:
Jonathan Rossiter
Editor:
Fumiya Iida
Editor:
Matteo Cianchetti
Editor:
Laura Margheri
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