Meeting Abstract
Fish are capable of a wide range of maneuvers which they seamlessly integrate with their undulatory locomotion. As such they have been models for designing autonomous under water vehicles (AUVs). To date, fish robots have been designed to maneuver using two basic modes of turning. The first is a waveform offset in which the frequency and amplitude of the oscillation remain unchanged, but the entire wave is biased to the right or the left, causing the fish to favor bending in one direction. The second is akin to the c-start maneuver in fish, in which a maximum amplitude deflection is simultaneously applied to all joints of the body to one side, interrupting the typical locomotor body oscillations. Based on preliminary video data, we suggest a new mode called a “bending pulse” wherein a peak of a given amplitude is propagated down the body from head to tail, unlike c-starts in which bending is simultaneous at all points along the body. By using high speed video to analyze the kinematics of turning in the giant danio (Devario aequipinnatus), we intend to quantify the turning strategies of fish, implement those strategies in a biomimetic, 3D-printed fish robot, and compare the robot’s turning performance using both bioinspired and other turning strategies. Through our video analysis and use of robot models we hope to better understand how fish exert fine motor control over a wide range of maneuvers, and apply that understanding to better design and control of biomimetic AUVs.
