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A soft aquatic actuator for unsteady peak power amplification

A soft aquatic actuator for unsteady peak power amplification
A soft aquatic actuator for unsteady peak power amplification
A soft hydraulic actuator is presented which uses elastic energy storage for the purpose of pulsed-jet propulsion of soft unmanned underwater vehicles. The actuator consists of a flexible membrane which can be inflated using a micro-pump and whose elastic potential energy may be released on demand using a controllable valve, in a manner inspired by the swimming of squids and octopuses. It is shown that for equivalent initial elastic energy, the drop in peak thrust is linearly proportional to the decrease in nozzle cross section. Peak hydraulic power amplification of the soft actuator of approximately 75% is achieved with respect to that of the driving pump, confirming that passive elasticity can be exploited in aquatic propulsion to replicate the explosive motion skills of agile sea-dwelling creatures.
1083-4435
Giorgio-Serchi, Francesco
8571dc14-19c1-4ed1-8080-d380736a6ffa
Lidtke, Artur
bf66183c-1c9c-41f3-a68d-9d65f94fda2c
Weymouth, Gabriel
b0c85fda-dfed-44da-8cc4-9e0cc88e2ca0
Giorgio-Serchi, Francesco
8571dc14-19c1-4ed1-8080-d380736a6ffa
Lidtke, Artur
bf66183c-1c9c-41f3-a68d-9d65f94fda2c
Weymouth, Gabriel
b0c85fda-dfed-44da-8cc4-9e0cc88e2ca0

Giorgio-Serchi, Francesco, Lidtke, Artur and Weymouth, Gabriel (2018) A soft aquatic actuator for unsteady peak power amplification. IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics. (doi:10.1109/TMECH.2018.2873253).

Record type: Article

Abstract

A soft hydraulic actuator is presented which uses elastic energy storage for the purpose of pulsed-jet propulsion of soft unmanned underwater vehicles. The actuator consists of a flexible membrane which can be inflated using a micro-pump and whose elastic potential energy may be released on demand using a controllable valve, in a manner inspired by the swimming of squids and octopuses. It is shown that for equivalent initial elastic energy, the drop in peak thrust is linearly proportional to the decrease in nozzle cross section. Peak hydraulic power amplification of the soft actuator of approximately 75% is achieved with respect to that of the driving pump, confirming that passive elasticity can be exploited in aquatic propulsion to replicate the explosive motion skills of agile sea-dwelling creatures.

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SerchiLidtkeWeymouth2018_preprint - Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 14 September 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: October 2018

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 423854
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/423854
ISSN: 1083-4435
PURE UUID: 38906dd7-a8f1-435a-bc8d-e00756b61f4c
ORCID for Francesco Giorgio-Serchi: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-5090-9007
ORCID for Gabriel Weymouth: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-5080-5016

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 03 Oct 2018 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:15

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Contributors

Author: Francesco Giorgio-Serchi ORCID iD
Author: Artur Lidtke

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