Meeting Abstract
Drag-based propulsion via metachronal beating of neighboring appendages is commonly found among species of crustaceans that undergo long-distance migrations in the ocean. While previous experimental studies have analyzed the kinematics of this swimming gait within the context of propulsive efficiency, the effect of stroke kinematics and morphology on transport of the surrounding fluid is not well understood. In this talk, we present a newly developed metachronal robotic swimmer designed to mimic the metachronal swimming of Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, during forward propulsion to analyze aspects of metachrony that are challenging to isolate in natural systems. In particular, we aim to understand which design parameters can be leveraged to maximize transport. We present particle image velocimetry measurements during vertical migration of a single swimmer and compare its hydrodynamic signature to flow fields of real organisms presented in the literature. We discuss the feasibility of leveraging this system to engineer new self-propelled robots that maximize transport in a transitional Reynolds regime.
