Related papers: Aerodynamic effects and performance improvements o…
We analyze a way to make flight vehicles harvest energy from homogeneous turbulence by fast tracking in the way that falling inertial particles do. Mean airspeed increases relative to flight through quiescent fluid when turbulent eddies…
Many university texts on Mechanics deal with the problem of the effect of the air drag force, using as example the slowing down of a parachute. Hardly no one discuss what happens when the drag force is proportional to both $u$ and $u^2$. In…
Bio-inspired $\pmb \vee$ flight formation is a well known technique for energy saving among groups of fixed-wing aircraft, and as of recently, for groups of quad-rotors. Here, we study the effect of the formation angle on the performance of…
We collected marathon performance data from a systematic sample of elite and sub-elite athletes over the period 2015 to 2019, then searched the internet for publicly-available photographs of these performances, identifying whether the Nike…
In order to determine the optimal strategy to run a race on a curved track according to the lane number, we introduce a model based on differential equations for the velocity, the propulsive force and the anaerobic energy which takes into…
Physicists seeking to understand complex biological systems often find it rewarding to create simple "toy models" that reproduce system behavior. Here a toy model is used to understand a puzzling phenomenon from the sport of track and…
An analysis of marathon pacing and elevation change is presented. It is based on an empirical observation of how the pace of elite and non-elite marathon runners change over the course of the marathon and a simple approximation of the…
Energy efficiency is a critical factor in the performance and autonomy of quadrupedal robots. While previous research has focused on mechanical design and actuation improvements, the impact of gait parameters on energetics has been less…
Aerodynamic drag on flat-backed vehicles like vans and trucks is dominated by a low-pressure wake, whose control is critical for reducing fuel consumption. This paper presents an experimental study at $Re_W\approx 78,300$ on active flow…
A multiplicative effects model is introduced for the identification of the factors that are influential to the performance of highly-trained endurance runners. The model extends the established power-law relationship between performance…
The aerodynamic optimization process of cars requires multiple iterations between aerodynamicists and stylists. Response Surface Modeling and Reduced-Order Modeling are commonly used to eliminate the overhead due to Computational Fluid…
It is often overlooked by roboticists when designing locomotion controllers for their legged machines, that energy consumption plays an important role in selecting the best gaits for locomotion at high speeds or over long distances. The…
We demonstrate formation flying for drone swarm services. A set of drones fly in four different swarm formations. A dataset is collected to study the effect of formation flying on energy consumption. We conduct a set of experiments to study…
The biomechanics of the human body allow humans a range of possible ways of executing movements to attain specific goals. Nevertheless, humans exhibit significant patterns in how they execute movements. We propose that the observed patterns…
Our aim is to present a new model which encompasses pace optimization and motor control effort for a runner on a fixed distance. We see that for long races, the long term behaviour is well approximated by a turnpike problem. We provide…
We study the pedestrian escape from an obscure corridor using a lattice gas model with two species of particles. One species, called passive, performs a symmetric random walk on the lattice, whereas the second species, called active, is…
Predictive motion planning is the key to achieve energy-efficient driving, which is one of the main benefits of automated driving. Researchers have been studying the planning of velocity trajectories, a simpler form of motion planning, for…
The aerodynamic optimization of cars requires close collaboration between aerodynamicists and stylists, while slow, expensive simulations remain a bottleneck. Surrogate models have been shown to accurately predict aerodynamics within the…
Aerodynamic inverse design can improve vehicle and aircraft efficiency, but practical design rarely seeks performance alone: vehicle refinement must reduce drag while preserving visual features linked to design language, brand recognition…
Previous design methodologies for spring-driven jumping robots focused on jump height optimization for specific tasks. In doing so, numerous designs have been proposed including using nonlinear spring-linkages to increase the elastic energy…