AUTHOR=Wright Marvin , Xiao Qing , Zhu Qiang 

TITLE=Combined hydrodynamic and control analysis on optimal kinematic parameters for bio-inspired autonomous underwater vehicle manoeuvring

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Physics

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physics/articles/10.3389/fphy.2023.1220596

DOI=10.3389/fphy.2023.1220596

ISSN=2296-424X

ABSTRACT=To investigate the manoeuvring performance of a Body Caudal Fish, a numerical framework combining computational fluid dynamics and multi-body dynamics with a closed loop control algorithm was established. Within this framework, we modelled a BCF swimmer as a multi-body system with the shape of a NACA0012 hydrofoil. The manoeuvring performance was investigated by using different curvature magnitudes and distributions along the centre line (the curvature is defined by means of a curvature envelop function as part of the general body undulation equation).To characterize the turning performance, a new parameter named Cost of Manoeuvring (COM) is proposed. This parameter provides a combined assessment of the turning radius, linear and angular velocity components and power. It is found that when body curvature is introduced the swimmer switches from straight-line swimming to quasi-steady turning at a constant speed. Further investigations were conducted to study contributions of head and tail deformations on the turning performance by comparing predominantly head and tail curvature envelopes. Results reveal that a tail-dominated envelope improves performance, whereas a head-dominated envelope has a negative effect.