Related papers: Bio-inspired underwater propulsors
In most macro-scale robotics systems , propulsion and controls are enabled through a physical tether or complex on-board electronics and batteries. A tether simplifies the design process but limits the range of motion of the robot, while…
Underwater robotics has advanced significantly over recent decades. however, the development of miniaturized underwater robots remains limited by low energy densities of traditional power sources. Nature offers compelling…
Traveling waves describe diverse natural phenomena from crystal growth in physics to range expansions in biology. Two classes of waves exist with very different properties: pulled and pushed. Pulled waves are driven by high growth rates at…
Understanding swimming in soft yielding media is challenging due to their complex deformation response to the swimmer's motion. We experimentally show that a scallop-inspired swimmer with reciprocally flapping wings generates locomotion in…
Active matter exhibits various forms of non-equilibrium states in the absence of external forcing, including macroscopic steady-state currents. Such states are often too complex to be modelled from first principles and our understanding of…
We present an experimental study of capillary surfers, a new fluid-mediated active system that bridges the gap between dissipation- and inertia-dominated regimes. Surfers are wave-driven particles that self-propel and interact on a fluid…
Living systems are chiral on multiple scales, from constituent biopolymers to large scale morphology, and their active mechanics is both driven by chiral components and serves to generate chiral morphologies. We describe the mechanics of…
Micro/nano-scale propulsion has attracted considerable recent attention due to its promise for biomedical applications such as targeted drug delivery. In this paper, we report on a new experimental design and theoretical modelling of…
Worm-like filaments that are propelled homogeneously along their tangent vector are studied by Brownian dynamics simulations. Systems in two dimensions are investigated, corresponding to filaments adsorbed to interfaces or surfaces. A large…
The current work studies the dynamics of a microswimmer in pressure-driven flow of a weakly viscoelastic fluid. Employing the second-order fluid model, we show that the self-propelling swimmer experiences a viscoelastic swimming lift in…
We present a novel design for a low-cost robotic boat powered by a single actuator, useful for both modular and swarming applications. The boat uses the conservation of angular momentum and passive flippers to convert the motion of a single…
Certain cyanobacteria, such as open ocean strains of Synechococcus, are able to swim at speeds up to 25 diameters per second, without flagella or visible changes in shape. The means by which Synechococcus generates thrust for…
We discover an instability mechanism in suspensions of self-propelled particles that does not involve active stress. Instead, it is driven by a subtle interplay of inertia, swimmer motility, and concentration fluctuations, through a crucial…
We propose a hydrodynamic theory to examine the emergence of contraction waves in dense active liquids composed of pulsating deformable particles. Our theory couples the liquid density with a chemical phase that determines the periodic…
This paper presents AquaMILR+, an untethered limbless robot designed for agile navigation in complex aquatic environments. The robot features a bilateral actuation mechanism that models musculoskeletal actuation in many anguilliform…
Underwater flow sensing is critical for unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) and environmental monitoring, yet existing sensors often suffer from low responsiveness, high detection thresholds, limited directional discrimination, complex…
A flexible membrane deforming its shape in time can self-propel in a viscous fluid. Alternatively, if the membrane is anchored, its deformation will lead to fluid transport. Past work in this area focused on situations where the deformation…
Waves of various types carry momentum, which is associated with their propagation direction, i.e., the phase gradient. The circulation of the wave momentum density gives rise to orbital angular momentum (AM). Additionally, for waves…
A fluid motion through the flow element is presented in the kind of an autooscillating system with the distributed parameters: mass, elasticity, viscosity. The system contains a self-excited oscillator and possesses a self-regulation on…
A propulsion model has been proposed for front crawl swimming (Carmigniani et al., 2020). The aim of this study is to validate this model through a progressive speed test using instrumented paddles to estimate the propulsion forces in…