Body Caudal Undulation Measured by Soft Sensors and Emulated by Soft Artificial Muscles

Lunsford, Elias T.; Hong, Taehwa; Wiesemüller, Fabian; Kovač, Mirko; Park, Yong‐Lae; Akanyeti, Otar; Liao, James C.; Jusufi, Ardian

doi:10.1093/icb/icab182

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…The main body is made following a similar method as described by Jusufi et al (2017) and Schwab et al (2024), and based on the work of Mosadegh et al (2014). The flexible backbone foil (0.52 mm thick shim stock: Artus, Inc.) has a flexural stiffness comparable to that of a fish (9.9e-4 [Nm 2 ]) (Jusufi et al 2017), and the actuators, made using a silicone-based elastomer (Dragon Skin™ 20, Smooth-On Inc.), are glued using a dedicated silicone adhesive (SilPoxy™, Smooth-On Inc.).…”

Section: Soft Active Materials Physical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asymmetric Fin Shape changes Swimming Dynamics of Ancient Marine Reptiles’ Soft Robophysical Models

Sprumont,

Allione,

Schwab

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Animals have evolved highly effective locomotion capabilities in terrestrial, aerial, and aquatic environments. Over life’s history, mass extinctions have wiped out unique animal species with specialized adaptations, leaving paleontologists to reconstruct their locomotion through fossil analysis. Despite advancements, little is known about how extinct megafauna, such as the Triassic ichthyosaurMixosaurus cornalianus, one of the most successful lineages of marine reptiles, utilized their varied morphologies for swimming. Traditional robotics struggle to mimic extinct locomotion effectively, but the emerging soft robotics field offers a promising alternative to overcome this challenge. This paper aims to bridge this gap by studyingMixosauruslocomotion with soft robotics, combining material modeling and biomechanics in physical experimental validation. Combining a soft body with soft pneumatic actuators, the soft robotic platform described in this study investigates the correlation between asymmetrical fins and buoyancy by recreating the pitch torque generated by extinct swimming animals. We performed a comparative analysis of thrust and torque generated byCarthorhyncus, Utatsusaurus, Mixosaurus, Guizhouichthyosaurus, andOphthalmosaurustail fins in a flow tank. Experimental results suggest that the pitch torque on the torso generated by hypocercal fin shapes such as found in model systems ofGuizhouichthyosaurus, MixosaurusandUtatsusaurusproduce distinct ventral body pitch effects able to mitigate the animal’s non-neutral buoyancy. This body pitch control effect is particularly pronounced inGuizhouichthyosaurus, which results suggest would have been able to generate high ventral pitch torque on the torso to compensate for its positive buoyancy. By contrast, homocercal fin shapes may not have been conducive for such buoyancy compensation, leaving torso pitch control to pectoral fins, for example. Across the range of the actuation frequencies of the caudal fins tested, resulted in oscillatory modes arising, which in turn can affect the for-aft thrust generated.

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Section: Soft Active Materials Physical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asymmetric Fin Shape changes Swimming Dynamics of Ancient Marine Reptiles’ Soft Robophysical Models

Sprumont,

Allione,

Schwab

et al. 2024

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…These tailed robots can tilt their bodies by simply rotating or moving their tails up or down while airborne. Increasingly the biorobotic physical models for the study of bending torsos and appendages in locomotion neuromechanics are leveraging advances from soft active materials (Siddall et al 2021c) and sensors (Schwab et al 2021(Schwab et al , 2022.…”

Section: Self-righting Robots and Technological Innovationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Air-to-land transitions: from wingless animals and plant seeds to shuttlecocks and bio-inspired robots

Ortega-Jimenez,

Jusufi,

Brown

et al. 2023

Bioinspir. Biomim.

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Recent observations of wingless animals, including jumping nematodes, springtails, insects, and wingless vertebrates like geckos, snakes, and salamanders, have shown that their adaptations and body morphing are essential for rapid self-righting and controlled landing. These skills can reduce the risk of physical damage during collision, minimize recoil during landing, and allow for a quick escape response to minimize predation risk. The size, mass distribution, and speed of an animal determine its self-righting method, with larger animals depending on the conservation of angular momentum and smaller animals primarily using aerodynamic forces. Many animals falling through the air, from nematodes to salamanders, adopt a skydiving posture while descending. Similarly, plant seeds such as dandelions and samaras are able to turn upright in mid-air using aerodynamic forces and produce high decelerations. These aerial capabilities allow for a wide dispersal range, low-impact collisions, and effective landing and settling. Recently, small robots that can right themselves for controlled landings have been designed based on principles of aerial maneuvering in animals. Further research into the effects of unsteady flows on self-righting and landing in small arthropods, particularly those exhibiting explosive catapulting, could reveal how morphological features, flow dynamics, and physical mechanisms contribute to effective mid-air control. More broadly, studying apterygote (wingless insects) landing could also provide insight into the origin of insect flight. These research efforts have the potential to lead to the bio-inspired design of aerial micro-vehicles, sports projectiles, parachutes, and impulsive robots that can land upright in unsteady flow conditions.

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“…Changes in the cross-sectional region of the eGaIn-filled channels result in changes in electrical resistance, which can be used to measure the bending amplitude of the soft robot. The sensors have low temperature sensitivity (Vogt et al, 2013) and the liquid's incompressibility makes them ideal for water experiments with change of ambient pressure (Hellebrekers et al, 2018;Schwab et al, 2021). For calibration testing, the sensor was bent in the undulation range of −50 to 50 °, and during this angle sweep the voltage was sampled.…”

Section: Soft Robotic Fish Platform With Egain Sensorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Undulatory Swimming Performance Explored With a Biorobotic Fish and Measured by Soft Sensors and Particle Image Velocimetry

et al. 2022

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Due to the difficulty of manipulating muscle activation in live, freely swimming fish, a thorough examination of the body kinematics, propulsive performance, and muscle activity patterns in fish during undulatory swimming motion has not been conducted. We propose to use soft robotic model animals as experimental platforms to address biomechanics questions and acquire understanding into subcarangiform fish swimming behavior. We extend previous research on a bio-inspired soft robotic fish equipped with two pneumatic actuators and soft strain sensors to investigate swimming performance in undulation frequencies between 0.3 and 0.7 Hz and flow rates ranging from 0 to 20 cms in a recirculating flow tank. We demonstrate the potential of eutectic gallium–indium (eGaIn) sensors to measure the lateral deflection of a robotic fish in real time, a controller that is able to keep a constant undulatory amplitude in varying flow conditions, as well as using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) to characterizing swimming performance across a range of flow speeds and give a qualitative measurement of thrust force exerted by the physical platform without the need of externally attached force sensors. A detailed wake structure was then analyzed with Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) to highlight different wave modes present in the robot’s swimming motion and provide insights into the efficiency of the robotic swimmer. In the future, we anticipate 3D-PIV with DMD serving as a global framework for comparing the performance of diverse bio-inspired swimming robots against a variety of swimming animals.

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Body Caudal Undulation Measured by Soft Sensors and Emulated by Soft Artificial Muscles

Cited by 10 publications

References 85 publications

Asymmetric Fin Shape changes Swimming Dynamics of Ancient Marine Reptiles’ Soft Robophysical Models

Asymmetric Fin Shape changes Swimming Dynamics of Ancient Marine Reptiles’ Soft Robophysical Models

Air-to-land transitions: from wingless animals and plant seeds to shuttlecocks and bio-inspired robots

Undulatory Swimming Performance Explored With a Biorobotic Fish and Measured by Soft Sensors and Particle Image Velocimetry

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