Theoretical Analysis of the Swimming Characteristics of Snakes and Snake-like Soft Robots Using Simplified Models
Date Issued
2008
Date
2008
Author(s)
Lu, Kuang-Heng
Abstract
Two main subjects are theoretically investigated by the present study. In the first part of this study, the traveling waves with linearity increasing amplitudes, instead of the traveling sine waves analyzed by Sir Taylor, are proposed to simulate the swimming motion of snakes. The result indicates that, by generating traveling waves with linearily increasing amplitudes, the snake will swim more efficiently, the predictions by the new mathematical model are closer to the observational data than those by Sir Taylor.The second part of the present study is aimed at investigating the shape effect on the swimming characteristics of a snake-like soft robot. Using sine wave as the reference, two types of wave forms are studied. One, called convex wave, has a larger slope and shape changes more rapidly than the sine wave in the leading portion of the body. The other, called concave wave, possesses a smaller slope and the shape changes mildly in the leading portion of the body. It is found from the analysis that the traveling convex waves will be the best choice for generating a lager swimming velocity of the snake-like soft robot. However, The traveling sine waves are preferred when energy saving is the main consideration.
Subjects
traveling waves
swimming characteristics
snake-like soft robot
convex wave
concave wave
Type
thesis
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