Meeting Abstract
Our studies of fish swimming have revealed that fish use their fins as propulsors and as sensors to swim and to navigate by touching obstacle surfaces and actively contacting the environment. This functionality implies that the mechanics and the sensory and control systems of fins are not designed solely for propulsion, but are more complex systems that evolved to satisfy a richer range of objectives. Based on neuromechanical and behavioral studies of the sunfish, we have developed biorobotic models of the pectoral and median fins that produce the propulsive forces and gaits for steady swimming, hovers, and turns, and which are instrumented with distributed sensors to measure fin ray bending and membrane pressures. These models have been used to investigate sensory-mediated control of fins during swimming and touch and to learn how to exploit biological principles for high performance robotic systems. In this talk, we will present our understanding of closed loop control applied across the continuum from steady swimming, to maneuver, to unsteady touch and propose a sensing and control framework for implementation in robotic fins.
