Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) inspired by Devil Fish, researchers at North Carolina State University have developed an energy-efficient software robot that can swim more than four times faster than previous swimming software robots. These robots are called "butterfly robots" because their swimming movements are similar to the way people move their arms in a butterfly stroke.

Jie Yin, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University and communications author of the work's paper, said: "so far, swimming software robots have not swam faster than one body length per second, but marine animals, such as Devil Fish, can swim even faster and more efficiently. We want to learn from the biomechanics of these animals and see if we can develop faster and more energy-efficient software robots. The prototype we developed performed very well. "

Researchers have developed two types of butterfly robots. One is specially built for speed and can reach an average speed of 3.74 body lengths per second. The second is designed to be highly mobile and can turn sharply to the right or left, and this prototype can reach a speed of 1.7 body lengths per second.

Yinding Chi, lead author of the paper and a recent PhD graduate from North Carolina State University, said: "researchers who study aerodynamics and biomechanics use something called the Strouhal number to assess the energy efficiency of flying and swimming animals. When animals swim or fly, the Strouhal number is between 0.2 and 0.4, and the propulsion efficiency reaches its peak. Both of our butterfly robots have Strouhal numbers in this range."

The swimming power of butterfly robots comes from their wings, which are "bistable", which means that the wings have two stable states. The wing is similar to a button hairpin, the initial state of the hairpin is stable unless a certain amount of energy is applied (by bending it). When the energy reaches the critical point, the hairpin will be buckled into a different shape, which is also stable.

In a butterfly robot, bistable wings inspired by hairpins are connected to a soft silicone gel. The switching of the wings between the two stable states is controlled by injecting air into the chamber inside the software. When these chambers are inflated and deflated, the fuselage bends up and down, forcing the wings to swing back and forth.

The butterfly robot has only one "drive unit" software to control its two wings, which makes it very fast, but it is difficult to turn left or right. The controllable butterfly robot has two driving units, which are connected side by side. This design allows the user to manipulate the wings on both sides, or to "flap" only one wing, which is why it can make a sharp turn.

"this work is an exciting proof of concept, but it has limitations, the most obvious being that the current prototype robot is tied to a slender tube, which we use to pump air into the central agency," Jie Yin said. We are currently working on an untethered, automatic version. "

CTOnews.com learned that the results have been published in the recent issue of Science Progress.

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