Meeting Abstract
An understanding of the locomotive control mechanisms in Aurelia aurita, a species of scyphomedusae, can potentially enable more efficient biomimetic medical tools and decrease the energy consumption of aquatic vehicles. Scyphomedusae are radially symmetric invertebrates comprising a flexible bell and subumbrellar coronal muscle that contracts to provide motive force. To swim, eight pacemakers along the bell margin activate the motor nerve net, which innervates the muscle ring. Jellyfish primarily swim vertically but can achieve more complicated motions by activating select pacemakers, which generates torque by time delays of traveling wave propagations and asymmetrical separation of vortices. Because A. aurita can survive with different numbers of pacemakers from natural mutations or injuries, two fundamental questions are why scyphomedusae have eight pacemakers and whether this tetrasymmetry found in all jellyfish is advantageous under certain swimming conditions. Through computational modeling and observation, we investigate whether there are optimal numbers of pacemakers to coordinate straight swimming, sharp turning, and/or smooth turning; and how these might change at various Reynolds numbers.
