Publication: Effect of body stiffness distribution on larval fish-like efficient undulatory swimming
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Wang, Tianlu
Ren, Ziyu
Hu, Wenqi
Li, Mingtong
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NO
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Abstract
Energy-efficient propulsion is a critical design target for robotic swimmers. Although previous studies have pointed out the importance of nonuniform body bending stiffness distribution (k) in improving the undulatory swimming efficiency of adult fish-like robots in the inertial flow regime, whether such an elastic mechanism is beneficial in the intermediate flow regime remains elusive. Hence, we develop a class of untethered soft milliswimmers consisting of a magnetic composite head and a passive elastic body with different k. These robots realize larval zebrafish-like undulatory swimming at the same scale. Investigations reveal that uniform k and high swimming frequency (60 to 100 Hz) are favorable to improve their efficiency. A shape memory polymer-based milliswimmer with tunable k on the fly confirms such findings. Such acquired knowledge can guide the design of energy-efficient leading edge-driven soft undulatory milliswimmers for future environmental and biomedical applications in the same flow regime.
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Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Subject
Multidisciplinary sciences, Science and technology
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Has Part
Source
Science Advances
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DOI
10.1126/sciadv.abf7364