Related papers: Accelerating Aquatic Soft Robots with Elastic Inst…
The propulsion of mammalian spermatozoa relies on the spontaneous periodic oscillation of their flagella. These oscillations are driven internally by the coordinated action of ATP-powered dynein motors that exert sliding forces between…
Robust locomotion control depends on accurate state estimations. However, the sensors of most legged robots can only provide partial and noisy observations, making the estimation particularly challenging, especially for external states like…
This paper presents aims at mobility improvement of flexible underwater robots. For this purpose, a novel propulsion method using planar structural vibration pattern is proposed, and tested on two kinds of prototypes. The result of…
Research on the co-optimization of soft robotic design and control requires rapid means for real-world validation. Existing creation pipelines do not allow for the swift prototyping of soft robots to quickly test various design…
Jellyfish cyborgs present a promising avenue for soft robotic systems, leveraging the natural energy-efficiency and adaptability of biological systems. Here we demonstrate a novel approach to predicting and controlling jellyfish locomotion…
Spermatozoa self-propel by propagating bending waves along a predominantly active elastic flagellum. The organized structure of the "9 + 2" axoneme is lost in the most-distal few microns of the flagellum, and therefore this region is…
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…
Inspired by the cellular design of plant tissue, we present a new approach to make versatile, tough, highly water-swelling composites. We embed highly swelling hydrogel particles inside tough, water-permeable, elastomeric matrices. The…
Biological locomotion, observed in the flexible wings of birds and insects, bodies and fins of aquatic mammals and fishes, consists of their ability to morph the wings/fins. The morphing capability holds significance in the abilities of…
A fin-body configuration is tested in a water tunnel to study the hydrodynamic loads and vortex evolution under dynamic fin-flapping motions, which is an idealized approximation of the pectoral fins of fish. The fin flaps about its leading…
In nature, many unicellular organisms are able to swim with the help of beating filaments, where local energy input leads to cooperative undulatory beating motion. Here, we investigate by employing reinforcement learning how undulatory…
It is well known that tuna fish in the ocean can dynamically morph their median fins to achieve optimal hydrodynamic performance, e.g. linear acceleration and maneuverability. In this study, based on the previous studies about the median…
Fish in schooling formations navigate complex flow-fields replete with mechanical energy in the vortex wakes of their companions. Their schooling behaviour has been associated with evolutionary advantages including collective energy…
Robotic tasks often require motions with complex geometric structures. We present an approach to learn such motions from a limited number of human demonstrations by exploiting the regularity properties of human motions e.g. stability,…
To evaluate the swimming performances of aquatic animals, an important dimensionless quantity is the Strouhal number, St = fA/U, with f the tail-beat frequency, A the peak-to-peak tail amplitude, and U the swimming velocity. Experiments…
This paper aims for a controller that can stabilize a position-controlled humanoid robot when standing still or walking on synthetic grass even when subjected to external disturbances. Two types of controllers are designed and implemented:…
The current study presents a systematic investigation of the locomotion performance of a swimmer with a wide range of parameter settings. Two-dimensional simulations with the immersed boundary method are employed for the fluid-structure…
Bio-inspired soft robots have already shown the ability to handle uncertainty and adapt to unstructured environments. However, their availability is partially restricted by time-consuming, costly and highly supervised design-fabrication…
Inspired by the vertebrate branch of the animal kingdom, articulated soft robots are robotic systems embedding elastic elements into a classic rigid (skeleton-like) structure. Leveraging on their bodies elasticity, soft robots promise to…
Many swimming and flying animals are observed to cruise in a narrow range of Strouhal numbers, where the Strouhal number ${St = 2fA/U}$ is a dimensionless parameter that relates stroke frequency $f$, amplitude $A$, and forward speed $U$.…