What mechanisms of flow control do animals use to enhance hydrodynamic performance? Animals are capable of manipulating flow around the body and appendages both passively and actively. Passive mechanisms rely on structural and morphological components of the body (i.e., humpback whale tubercles, riblets). Active flow control mechanisms use appendage or body musculature to directly generate wake flow structures or stiffen fins against external hydrodynamic loads. Fish can actively control fin curvature, displacement, and area. The vortex wake shed by the tail differs between eel-like fishes and fishes with a discrete narrowing of the body in front of the tail, and three-dimensional effects may play a major role in determining wake structure in most fishes.

Although the functional properties of shark skin have been of considerable interest to both biologists and engineers because of the complex hydrodynamic effects of surface roughness, no study to date has successfully fabricated a flexible biomimetic shark skin that allows detailed study of hydrodynamic function. We present the first study of the design, fabrication and hydrodynamic testing of a synthetic, flexible, shark skin membrane. A three-dimensional (3D) model of shark skin denticles was constructed using micro-CT imaging of the skin of the shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus). Using 3D printing, thousands of rigid synthetic shark denticles were placed on flexible membranes in a controlled, linear-arrayed pattern. This flexible 3D printed shark skin model was then tested in water using a robotic flapping device that allowed us to either hold the models in a stationary position or move them dynamically at their self-propelled swimming speed. Compared with a smooth control model without denticles, the 3D printed shark skin showed increased swimming speed with reduced energy consumption under certain motion programs. For example, at a heave frequency of 1.5 Hz and an amplitude of ±1 cm, swimming speed increased by 6.6% and the energy cost-of-transport was reduced by 5.9%. In addition, a leading-edge vortex with greater vorticity than the smooth control was generated by the 3D printed shark skin, which may explain the increased swimming speeds. The ability to fabricate synthetic biomimetic shark skin opens up a wide array of possible manipulations of surface roughness parameters, and the ability to examine the hydrodynamic consequences of diverse skin denticle shapes present in different shark species.

Tuna and related scombrid fishes are high-performance swimmers that often operate at high frequencies, especially during behaviors such as escaping from predators or catching prey. This contrasts with most fish-like robotic systems that typically operate at low frequencies (< 2 hertz). To explore the high-frequency fish swimming performance space, we designed and tested a new platform based on yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) and Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus). Body kinematics, speed, and power were measured at increasing tail beat frequencies to quantify swimming performance and to study flow fields generated by the tail. Experimental analyses of freely swimming tuna and mackerel allow comparison with the tuna-like robotic system. The Tunabot (255 millimeters long) can achieve a maximum tail beat frequency of 15 hertz, which corresponds to a swimming speed of 4.0 body lengths per second. Comparison of midline kinematics between scombrid fish and the Tunabot shows good agreement over a wide range of frequencies, with the biggest discrepancy occurring at the caudal fin, primarily due to the rigid propulsor used in the robotic model. As frequency increases, cost of transport (COT) follows a fish-like U-shaped response with a minimum at ~1.6 body lengths per second. The Tunabot has a range of ~9.1 kilometers if it swims at 0.4 meter per second or ~4.2 kilometers at 1.0 meter per second, assuming a 10–watt-hour battery pack. These results highlight the capabilities of high-frequency biological swimming and lay the foundation to explore a fish-like performance space for bio-inspired underwater vehicles.

SUMMARY: It has long been suspected that the denticles on shark skin reduce hydrodynamic drag during locomotion, and a number of man-made materials have been produced that purport to use shark-skin-like surface roughness to reduce drag during swimming. But no studies to date have tested these claims of drag reduction under dynamic and controlled conditions in which the swimming speed and hydrodynamics of shark skin and skin-like materials can be quantitatively compared with those of controls lacking surface ornamentation or with surfaces in different orientations. We use a flapping foil robotic device that allows accurate determination of the self-propelled swimming (SPS) speed of both rigid and flexible membrane-like foils made of shark skin and two biomimetic models of shark skin to measure locomotor performance. We studied the SPS speed of real shark skin, a silicone riblet material with evenly spaced ridges and a Speedo® ‘shark skin-like’ swimsuit fabric attached to rigid flat-plate foils and when made into flexible membrane-like foils. We found no consistent increase in swimming speed with Speedo® fabric, a 7.2% increase with riblet material, whereas shark skin membranes (but not rigid shark skin plates) showed a mean 12.3% increase in swimming speed compared with the same skin foils after removing the denticles. Deformation of the shark skin membrane is thus crucial to the drag-reducing effect of surface denticles. Digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) of the flow field surrounding moving shark skin foils shows that skin denticles promote enhanced leading-edge suction, which might have contributed to the observed increase in swimming speed. Shark skin denticles might thus enhance thrust, as well as reduce drag.

SUMMARY: As a result of years of research on the comparative biomechanics and physiology of moving through water, biologists and engineers have made considerable progress in understanding how animals moving underwater use their muscles to power movement, in describing body and appendage motion during propulsion, and in conducting experimental and computational analyses of fluid movement and attendant forces. But it is clear that substantial future progress in understanding aquatic propulsion will require new lines of attack. Recent years have seen the advent of one such new avenue that promises to greatly broaden the scope of intellectual opportunity available to researchers: the use of biorobotic models. In this paper we discuss, using aquatic propulsion in fishes as our focal example, how using robotic models can lead to new insights in the study of aquatic propulsion. We use two examples: (1) pectoral fin function, and (2) hydrodynamic interactions between dorsal and caudal fins. Pectoral fin function is characterized by considerable deformation of individual fin rays, as well as spanwise (along the length) and chordwise (across the fin) deformation and area change. The pectoral fin can generate thrust on both the outstroke and instroke. A robotic model of the pectoral fin replicates this result, and demonstrates the effect of altering stroke kinematics on the pattern of force production. The soft dorsal fin of fishes sheds a distinct vortex wake that dramatically alters incoming flow to the tail: the dorsal fin and caudal fin act as dual flapping foils in series. This design can be replicated with a dual-foil flapping robotic device that demonstrates this phenomenon and allows examination of regions of the flapping performance space not available to fishes. We show how the robotic flapping foil device can also be used to better understand the significance of flexible propulsive surfaces for locomotor performance. Finally we emphasize the utility of self-propelled robotic devices as a means of understanding how locomotor forces are generated, and review different conceptual designs for robotic models of aquatic propulsion.

Research on fish locomotion has expanded greatly in recent years as new approaches have been brought to bear on a classical field of study. Detailed analyses of patterns of body and fin motion and the effects of these movements on water flow patterns have helped scientists understand the causes and effects of hydrodynamic patterns produced by swimming fish. Recent developments include the study of the center-of-mass motion of swimming fish and the use of volumetric imaging systems that allow three-dimensional instantaneous snapshots of wake flow patterns. The large numbers of swimming fish in the oceans and the vorticity present in fin and body wakes support the hypothesis that fish contribute significantly to the mixing of ocean waters. New developments in fish robotics have enhanced understanding of the physical principles underlying aquatic propulsion and allowed intriguing biological features, such as the structure of shark skin, to be studied in detail.