Related papers: Aerodynamic effects and performance improvements o…
The limited onboard energy of autonomous mobile robots poses a tremendous challenge for practical deployment. Hence, efficient computing solutions are imperative. A crucial shortcoming of state-of-the-art computing solutions is that they…
The biomechanics of the human body allow humans a range of possible ways of executing movements to attain specific goals. This range of movement is limited by a number of mechanical, biomechanical, or cognitive constraints. Shifts in these…
We introduce a reinforcement learning (RL) based adaptive optimization algorithm for aerodynamic shape optimization focused on dimensionality reduction. The form in which RL is applied here is that of a surrogate-based, actor-critic policy…
Most plants and benthic organisms have evolved efficient reconfiguration mechanisms to resist flow-induced loads. These mechanisms can be divided into bending, in which plants reduce their sail area through elastic deformation, and pruning,…
We formulate a phenomenological model to study the power applied by a cyclist on a velodrome\, -- \,for individual timetrials\, -- \,taking into account the straights, circular arcs, connecting transition curves and banking. The dissipative…
This article reports on a full replication study in computational fluid dynamics, using an immersed boundary method to obtain the flow around a pitching and rolling elliptical wing. As in the original study, the computational experiments…
Predicting of airfoil aerodynamic performance is a key part of aircraft design optimization, but the traditional methods (such as wind tunnel test and CFD simulation) have the problems of high cost and low efficiency, and the existing…
Obtaining predictive low-order models is a central challenge in fluid dynamics. Data-driven frameworks have been widely used to obtain low-order models of aerodynamic systems; yet, resulting models tend to yield predictions that grow…
Isolated mechanical systems -- e.g., those floating in space, in free-fall, or on a frictionless surface -- are able to achieve net rotation by cyclically changing their shape, even if they have no net angular momentum. Similarly, swimmers…
Dynamics of a dry-rebounding drop was studied experimentally, numerically, and theoretically. Experimental results were reproduced by our computational fluid dynamics simulations, from which time series of kinetic energy, potential energy,…
Bristled and membranous insect wings have co-evolved despite apparently serving the same functionality. We emulate flight physics using an automated free-fall experiment to better understand how and why several distinct wing forms may have…
Running is a fundamental form of human locomotion and a key task for evaluating neuromuscular control and lower-limb coordination. In recent years, muscle synergy analysis based on surface electromyography (sEMG) has become an important…
Accurate prediction of the dynamics and deformation of freely moving drops is crucial for numerous droplet applications. When the Weber number is finite but below a critical value, the drop deviates from its spherical shape and deforms as…
We investigate experimentally the drying of a small volume of perfectly wetting liquid on two crossed fibers. We characterize the drying dynamics for the three liquid morphologies that are encountered in this geometry: drop, column and a…
Energy saving mechanisms in nature allow following organisms to expend less energy than leaders. Queues, or ordered rows of individuals, may form when organisms exploit the available energy saving mechanism while travelling at near-maximal…
At the 2005 world championships there was considerable discussion and a formal protest in the long distance race arising from a perceived advantage obtained by some athletes running together. It is shown that a statistical model presented…
This paper describes an investigation of the possible benefits from wing optimisation in improving the performance of Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs). As an example we study the Avion (3.64 kg mass, 1.60 m span), being designed at the CSIR…
Aggregation-diffusion equations are foundational tools for modelling biological aggregations. Their principal use is to link the collective movement mechanisms of organisms to their emergent space use patterns in a concrete mathematical…
In each rowing sport, the oars have their very own characteristics most of the time selected through a long time experience. Here we address experimentally and theoretically the problem of rowing efficiency as function of row lengths and…
Both experiments and direct numerical simulations have been used to demonstrate that riblets can reduce turbulent drag by as much as $10\%$, but their systematic design remains an open challenge. In this paper, we develop a model-based…