Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Hydrodynamics study of a BCF mode bioinspired robotic-fish underwater vehicle using Lighthill’s slender body model

  • Original article
  • Published:
Journal of Marine Science and Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper investigates the hydrodynamic characteristics of the rectilinear motion of a robotic fish underwater vehicle. This 2-joint, 3-link multibody vehicle model is biologically inspired by a body caudal fin carangiform fish propulsion mechanism. Navier–Stokes equations are used to compute the unsteady flow fields generated due to the interaction between the vehicle and the surrounding incompressible and Newtonian fluid (water) environment. The NACA 0014 airfoil aerodynamic profile has been designed to boost the swimming efficiency by reducing drag as the vehicle undergoes an undulatory/oscillatory motion. Using the Lighthill slender body model, a traveling wave mathematical function is defined to undulate the robotic fish posterior (caudal) region while the motion tracking is carried out by dynamic meshing technique. The results obtained show that though the net lift force approaches to zero, the net thrust or negative drag coefficient maintains a finite value dependent on kinematic parameters like tail beat frequency (TBF) and amplitude span (AS) at a given propulsive wavelength and the forward velocity of the vehicle. The results reveal the effects of TBF and AS on the coefficient of drag friction and the thrust force. Drag coefficients obtained from the simulations are compared and validated with the experimental results. The hydrodynamic results are found to be similar to the kinematic study results and suggest that TBF and AS play the most effective roles in the bioinspired propulsion technique. Relation of these parameters with propelling thrust force and forward velocity is also in conjunction over a given range of TBF and AS values.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Bandyopadhyay PR (2005) Trends in biorobotic autonomous undersea vehicles. IEEE J Ocean Eng 30:109–139. doi:10.1109/JOE.2005.843748

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Marras S, Porfiri M (2012) Fish and robots swimming together: attraction towards the robot demands biomimetic locomotion. J R Soc Interface 9:1856–1868. doi:10.1098/rsif.2012.0084

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Breder CM (1926) The locomotion of fishes. Zoologica 4:159–256

    Google Scholar 

  4. Gray J (1936) Studies in animal locomotion. VI. The propulsive powers of the dolphin. J Exp Biol 13:192–199

    Google Scholar 

  5. Lighthill MJ (1960) Note on the swimming of slender fish. J Fluid Mech 9:305–317. doi:10.1017/S0022112060001110

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  6. Lighthill MJ (1970) Aquatic animal propulsion of high hydro-mechanical efciency. J Fluid Mech 44:256–301. doi:10.1017/S0022112070001830

    Google Scholar 

  7. Videler JJ (1993) Fish swimming. Chapman and Hall, London. doi:10.1007/978-94-011-1580-3

    Book  Google Scholar 

  8. Webb PW (1994) The biology of fish swimming. In: Maddock L, Bone, Q, Rayner JMV (eds) Mechanics and physiology of animal swimming. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 45–62. doi:http://dx.doi.org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/10.1017/CBO9780511983641

  9. Liu H, Wassersug R, Kawachi K (1997) The three-dimensional hydrodynamics of tadpole locomotion. J Exp Biol 200:2807–2819

    Google Scholar 

  10. Triantafyllou MS, Techet AH, Hover FS (2004) Review of experimental work in biomimetic foils. IEEE J Ocean Eng 29:585–594. doi:10.1109/JOE.2004.833216

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Ikuo Yamamoto, Yuuzi Terada, Tetsuo Nagamatsu, Yoshiteru Imaizumi (1995) Propulsion system with flexible/rigid oscillating fin. IEEE J Ocean Eng 20(1):23–30. doi:10.1109/48.380249

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Fu KS, Gonzalez RC, Lee CS (1987) Robotics control, sensing vision and intelligence. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  13. Fossen TI (2011) Handbook of marine craft hydrodynamics and motion control. Wiley. doi:10.1002/9781119994138

  14. Dewar H, Graham J (1994) Studies of tropical Tuna swimming performance in a large water tunnel kinematics. J Exp Biol 192:45–59

    Google Scholar 

  15. Barrett D, Grosenbaugh M, Triantafyllou MS (1996) Optimal control of a flexible hull robotic undersea vehicle propelled by an oscillating foil. In: IEEE Symposium on Autonomous Underwater Technology, Monterey, pp 1–9: doi:10.1109/AUV.1996.532833

  16. Zhou C, Low KH, Chong CW (2009) An analytical approach for better swimming efciency of slender fish robots based on Lighthills model. In: IEEE International conference on robotics and biomimetics ROBIO, pp 1651–1656. doi:10.1109/ROBIO.2009.5420418

  17. Motomu N, Norifumi O, Kyosuke O (2003) A study on the propulsive mechanism of a double jointed fish robot utilizing self-excitation control. JSME Int J Ser C 46:982–990. doi:10.1299/jsmec.46.982

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Roy Chowdhury A, Prasad B, Kumar V, Kumar R, Panda SK (2011) Design, modeling and open-loop control of a bcf mode bio-mimetic robotic fish. In: IEEE International symposium on safety, security, & rescue robotics, Kyoto, pp 226–231. doi:10.1109/SSRR.2011.6106768

  19. Roy Chowdhury A, Prasad B, Kumar V, Kumar R, Panda SK (2012) Kinematics study and implementation of a biomimetic robotic fish underwater vehicle based on Lighthill slender body model. In: IEEE OES Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV), National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, pp 1–6. doi:10.1109/AUV.2012.6380721

  20. Roy Chowdhury A, Prasad B, Kumar V, Kumar R, Panda SK (2013) Finding an operating region for a bio-inspired robotic fish underwater vehicle in the Lighthill framework. In: IEEE international conference on robotics and biomimetics ROBIO Shenzhen, pp 854–860. doi:10.1109/ROBIO.2013.6739569

  21. Roy Chowdhury A, Prasad B, Kumar V, Kumar R, Panda SK (2014) Inverse dynamics kinematic control of a bio-inspired robotic fish underwater vehicle propulsion based on Lighthills slender body model. In: IEEE OES MTS OCEANS Taipei, pp 1–6: doi:10.1109/OCEANS-TAIPEI.2014.6964283

  22. Roy Chowdhury A, Prasad B, Kumar V, Kumar R, Panda SK (2014) Bio-harmonized dynamics model for a biology inspired carangiform robotic fish underwater vehicle. In: Proc. 19th IFAC World Congress, Capetown, vol 19, pp 7258–7265

  23. Roy Chowdhury A, Panda SK (2014) Kinematic parameter based behavior modelling and control of a bio-inspired robotic fish. In: Proceedings of SICE annual conference, Sapporo, pp 319–324. doi:10.1109/SICE.2014.6935197

  24. Roy Chowdhury A, Prasad B, Kumar V, Kumar R, Panda SK (2014) Model-based control of a bcf mode carangiform bioinspired robotic fish. MTS Journal-Emerging Leaders: A Special Issue. 48(4):36–50

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work is presently supported by the Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA), under the Ministry of Defence (Singapore), Government of Singapore, under Grant R-263-000-621-232-MINDEF-DSTA for Underwater Vehicle Technology Project STARFISH 2. We would like to thank Mr. Alok Agrawal of Purdue University, Mr. Vinoth Kumar of CENSAM, and Mr. Bhunesh Prasad of EMDL, NUS for key contributions for the mechanical CAD design of Robotic fish. We would acknowledge useful suggestions and feedback given by Mr. Shailabh Suman of Acoustic Research Lab, NUS, Dr. Mandar Chitre, Director, Acoustic Research Lab, NUS, Dr. Pablo Alvaro Valdivia of Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) and Professor Xu Jianxin of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117576, Singapore

    Abhra Roy Chowdhury, Wang Xue & S. K. Panda

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, 400076, India

    Manasa Ranjan Behera

Authors
  1. Abhra Roy Chowdhury
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Wang Xue
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Manasa Ranjan Behera
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. S. K. Panda
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Abhra Roy Chowdhury.

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Chowdhury, A.R., Xue, W., Behera, M.R. et al. Hydrodynamics study of a BCF mode bioinspired robotic-fish underwater vehicle using Lighthill’s slender body model. J Mar Sci Technol 21, 102–114 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00773-015-0335-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00773-015-0335-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation