Current unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs) are almost exclusively propeller driven designs, which must inherently be optimized for a particular speed, sacrificing low speed manoeuvrability for cruising efficiency. Recently, biomimetic approaches to underwater vehicle propulsion have illuminated the exciting possibilities for performance improvements made possible by emulating fish motion. In par...

Tangential and normal velocity profiles of the boundary layer surrounding live swimming fish were determined by digital particle tracking velocimetry, DPTV. Two species were examined: the scup Stenotomus chrysops, a carangiform swimmer, and the smooth dogfish Mustelus canis, an anguilliform swimmer. Measurements were taken at several locations over the surfaces of the fish and throughout comple...

This paper presents simplified hydrodynamics model for a biomimetic robot fish based on quantitative morphological and kinematic parameters of crangiform fish. The motion of four Pangasius sanitwongsei with different length and swimming speed were recorded by the digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) and image processing methods and optimal coefficients of the motion equations and appropria...

We carry out fluid-structure interaction simulations of self-propelled virtual swimmers to investigate the effects of body shape (form) and kinematics on the hydrodynamics of undulatory swimming. To separate the effects of form and kinematics, we employ four different virtual swimmers: a carangiform swimmer (i.e. a mackerel swimming like mackerel do in nature); an anguilliform swimmer (i.e. a l...

The paper addresses hydrodynamic performance of a slender swimmer furnished with a flexible small-aspect-ratio soft-rayed caudal fin. The recoil of the fin is found by solving the coupled hydro-elastic problem, in which the structure of the fin is modeled by a cantilever of variable cross section and the hydrodynamic forces acting on it are modeled using the elongated body theory. It is shown t...

Eels undulate a larger portion of their bodies while swimming than many other fishes, but the hydrodynamic consequences of this swimming mode are poorly understood. In this study, we examine in detail the hydrodynamics of American eels (Anguilla rostrata) swimming steadily at 1.4 L s(-1) and compare them with previous results from other fishes. We performed high-resolution particle image veloci...

In this work, we explore the feasibility of regulating the collective behavior of zebrafish with a free-swimming robotic fish. The visual cues elicited by the robot are inspired by salient features of attraction in zebrafish and include enhanced coloration, aspect ratio of a fertile female, and carangiform/subcarangiform locomotion. The robot is autonomously controlled with an online multi-targ...

For nearly a century, researchers have tried to understand the swimming of aquatic animals in terms of a balance between the forward thrust from swimming movements and drag on the body. Prior approaches have failed to provide a separation of these two forces for undulatory swimmers such as lamprey and eels, where most parts of the body are simultaneously generating drag and thrust. We nonethele...