Numerical Study of Propulsion Mechanism for Oscillating Rigid and Flexible Tuna-Tails

Numerical study on the unsteady hydrodynamic characteristics of oscillating rigid and flexible tuna-tails in viscous flow-field is performed. Investigations are conducted using Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes （RANS） equations with a moving adaptive mesh. The effect of swimming speed, flapping amplitude, frequency and flexure amplitude on the propulsion performance of the rigid and flexible tuna-tails are investigated. Computational results reveal that a pair of leading edge vortices develop along the tail surface as it undergoes an oscillating motion. The propulsive efficiency has a strong correlation with various locomotive parameters. Peak propulsive efficiency can be obtained by adjusting these parameters. Particularly, when input power coeffcient is less than 2.8, the rigid tail generates larger thrust force and higher propulsive efficiency than flexible tail. However, when input power coefficient is larger than 2.8, flexible tail is superior to rigid tail.

Dynamic Analysis of Propulsion Mechanism Directly Driven by Wave Energy for Marine Mobile Buoy

Marine mobile buoy（MMB） have many potential applications in the maritime industry and ocean science.Great progress has been made,however the technology in this area is far from maturity in theory and faced with many difficulties in application.A dynamic model of the propulsion mechanism is very necessary for optimizing the parameters of the MMB,especially with consideration of hydrodynamic force.The principle of wave-driven propulsion mechanism is briefly introduced.To set a theory foundation for study on the MMB,a dynamic model of the propulsion mechanism of the MMB is obtained.The responses of the motion of the platform and the hydrofoil are obtained by using a numerical integration method to solve the ordinary differential equations.A simplified form of the motion equations is reached by omitting terms with high order small values.The relationship among the heave motion of the buoy,stiffness of the elastic components,and the forward speed can be obtained by using these simplified equations.The dynamic analysis show the following：The angle of displacement of foil is fairly small with the biggest value around 0.3 rad;The speed of mobile buoy and the angle of hydrofoil increased gradually with the increase of heave motion of buoy;The relationship among heaven motion,stiffness and attack angle is that heave motion leads to the angle change of foil whereas the item of speed or push function is determined by vertical velocity and angle,therefore,the heave motion and stiffness can affect the motion of buoy significantly if the size of hydrofoil is kept constant.The proposed model is provided to optimize the parameters of the MMB and a foundation is laid for improving the performance of the MMB.

Initial Development of a Novel Amphibious Robot with Transformable Fin-Leg Composite Propulsion Mechanisms

Amphibious robots are very attractive for their broad applications in resource exploration, disaster rescue, and recon- naissance. However, it is very challenging to develop the robots for their complex, amphibious working environments. In the complex amphibious environment, amphibious robots should possess multi-capabilities to walk on rough ground, maneuver underwater, and pass through transitional zones such as sandy and muddy terrain. These capabilities require a high-performance propulsion mechanism for the robots. To tackle a complex task, a novel amphibious robot （AmphiHex-I） with,transformable fin-leg composite propulsion mechanisms is developed. With the fin-leg composite propulsions, AmphiHex-I can walk on rough and soft substrates and swim in water with many maneuvers. This paper presents the structural design of the transformable fin-leg propulsion mechanism and its driving module. A hybrid model is used to explore the dynamics between the trans- formable legs and transitional environment such as granular medium. The locomotion performances of legs with various ellip- tical shapes are analyzed, which is verified by the coincidence between the model predictions and the simulation results. Further, an orthogonal experiment is conducted to study the locomotion performance of a two-legged platform walking with an asyn- chronous gait in the sandy and muddy terrain. Finally, initial experiments of AmphiHex-I walking on various lands and swimming in water are implemented. These results verify that the transformable fin-leg mechanisms enable the amphibious robot to pass through a complex, amphibious working environment.

Bioinspiration review of Aquatic Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(AquaUAV)

The performance of Aquatic Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(AquaUAV)has always been limited so far and far from practical applications,due to insufficient propulsion,large-resistance structure etc.Aerial-aquatic amphibians in nature may facilitate the development of AquaUAV since their excellent amphibious locomotion capabilities evolved under long-term natural selection.This article will take four typical aerial-aquatic amphibians as representatives,i.e.,gannet,cormorant,flying fish and flying squid.We summarized the multi-mode locomotion process of common aerial-aquatic amphibians and the evolutionary trade-offs they have made to adapt to amphibious environments.The four typical propulsion mechanisms were investigated,which may further inspire the propulsion design of the AquaUAV.And their morphological models could guide the layout optimization.Finally,we reviewed the state of art in AquaUAV to validate the potential value of our bioinspiration,and discussed the futureprospects.

A Novel Undulatory Propulsion Strategy for Underwater Robots

Stingrays can undulate their wide pectoral fins to thrust themselves and swim freely underwater.Many researchers have used bionics to directly imitate their undulating mechanism and manufacture undulatory underwater robots.Based on the limitations of the existing undulatory underwater robots,this paper proposes a novel undulatory propulsion strategy,which aims to use the stingray undulating mechanism more thoroughly.First,the mathematical models of both traditional and novel structures are established to accurately describe their undulating mechanism.Then,based on the dynamic mesh technology,the flow field vortex structure they generated is analyzed through fluid-structure interaction simulation,and the thrust force and lateral force generated by them are calculated,which verified that this novel propulsion strategy is indeed more effective.Finally,a prototype robot based on the improved propulsion strategy is manufactured.Compared with the existing stingray robots,the prototype has obvious advantages,thus verifying the accuracy of the simulation results.

HYDRODYNAMIC STUDY ON A PECTORAL FIN ROWING MODEL OF A FISH

Fish pectoral fin movement involves primarily a drag-based and a lift-based mechanisms to produce thrust. A numerical study on a pectoral fin rowing propulsion model based on the drag-based mechanism is presented in this article. The propulsive mechanism of the pectoral fin rowing model is related with the voriticity and pressure in the flow field. The relationship between the thrust and kinematic parameters and the wake-captured problem are analyzed. It is shown that a high thrust is produced in the power stroke, mainly due to the backward translation acceleration, the anticlockwise angular acceleration and the absence of stall in the uniform translation. Moreover, the flow control mechanism and the effect of dynamic flexible deformation are further analyzed. To properly choose controllable factors and adopt an appropriate dynamic deformation can improve the propulsive performance.

Designing bioactive micro-/nanomotors for engineered regeneration

Micro/nanoscale motors(MNMs)have been regarded as promising tools in the field of engineered regeneration due to unique property of autonomous motion.Herein,a review on the advancements of MNMs in the area of engineered regeneration is presented,covering aspects from their propulsion mechanisms to their frontiers in engineered regeneration,listing the revolutionary applications in biosensing,medical imaging,drug delivery and tissue engineering.Finally,challenges and future directions of MNMs are finally discussed on the basis of the achievements.

DYNAMICS OF FREE STRAIGHT SWIMMING OF ANGULLA ANGULLA INCLUDING FORWARD,BRAKING AND BACKWARD LOCOMOTION

Eels can swim backward by reversing the direction of the traveling wave along the body. The propulsive mechanism of an eel, angulla angulla, during its self-propelled straight swimming, including forward swimming, braking and switching direction to backward swimming was numerically studied. The problem was reasonably simplified to a loose-coupling problem of fish swimming dynamics and hydrodynamics only in the swimming direction. The approach involved the simulation of the flow by solving the two-dimensional unsteady incompressible N-S equations and the fish motion dynamic problem with Newton＇s second law. Visualizations of flow fields and vortex structures were performed. The propulsive mechanism and dynamics during each process were investigated and the effects of controllable factors on forward free swimming were discussed.