2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

An Experimental Study on the Sea Turtle-like Propulsor

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21860086
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Fluid engineering
Research Institution	Tsuyama National College of Technology
Principal Investigator	HOSOTANI Kazunori Tsuyama National College of Technology, 電子制御工学科, 准教授 (60509107)
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2010
Keywords	Biological Engineering / Fluid mechanics / Underwater robot / 水中ロボット / 生物流体 / 羽ばたき翼
Research Abstract	Marine animals swim skillfully in various flow fields by controlling their thrust force, thus providing an opportunity to develop engineering technology for remote-controlled operated vehicles. In this study, we investigated the propulsion of the sea turtles and developed a propulsor with a sequential controlled oscillating fin driven by DC-servo motors. Thrust force was measured not only in a uniform flow, but also in a cyclic asymmetrical flow. In the cyclic asymmetrical flow, large thrusts were observed when the fin begins to downswing as the flow decelerates. This result suggests that this propulsion mechanism can make for efficient energy-saving technology. This propulsion mechanism can also be adopted in the asymmetrical flow, even in shallow waters.