Biomimetic ratcheting motion of a soft, slender, sessile gel

Biomimetic ratcheting motion of a soft, slender, sessile gel.

Inspired by the locomotion of terrestrial limbless animals, we study the motion of a lubricated rod of a hydrogel on a soft substrate. We show that it is possible to mimic observed biological gaits by vibrating the substrate and by using a variety of mechanisms to break longitudinal and lateral symmetry. Our simple theory and experiments provide a unified view of the creeping, undulating, and i...

A Novel Soft Biomimetic Microrobot with Two Motion Attitudes

 A variety of microrobots have commonly been used in the fields of biomedical engineering and underwater operations during the last few years. Thanks to their compact structure, low driving power, and simple control systems, microrobots can complete a variety of underwater tasks, even in limited spaces. To accomplish our objectives, we previously designed several bio-inspired underwater microro...

Biomimetic soft matter

On the motion of slender vortex filaments

Several approaches for slender vortex motion ~the local induction equation, the Klein–Majda equation, and the Klein–Knio equation! are compared on a specific example of sideband instability of Kelvin waves on a vortex. Numerical experiments on this model problem indicate that all these equations yield qualitatively similar behavior, and this behavior is different from the behavior of a nonslend...

Ratcheting motion of liquid drops on gradient surfaces.

The motions of liquid drops of various surface tensions and viscosities were investigated on a solid substrate possessing a gradient of wettability. A drop of any size moves spontaneously on such a surface when the contact angle hysteresis is negligible; but it has to be larger than a critical size in order to move on a hysteretic surface. The hysteresis can, however, be reduced or eliminated w...