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Development of Soft Impulse propulsion for underwater travel and aquatic-aerial transitions
To adapt to the ever changing environment of multiple mediums such as air and water, multi-functionality and multi-environment adaptability are desired skills for exploration and environmental monitoring robots. This project aims at developing a single robot capable of morphing its body for energetically efficient multi-modal locomotion in the air, water surface and underwater. In specific, we will explore forms of high-power mechanical energy storage in the form of hybrid flexible and hyperelastic structures to achieve consecutive aquatic escape and underwater locomotion.
The work will be subdivided in the following tasks:
1. Literature research and familiarization with biological jetting locomotion, and flexible mechanisms and manufacturing methods.
2. Optimization of the shape, stiffness, and actuation speed of the bio-inspired jetting system using numerical tools.
3. Manufacturing and experimental characterization of the developed prototypes and benchmark against conventional system.
The work location will be the Centre for Robotics at Empa (Dübendorf) and will be conducted in collaboration with the Aerial Robotics Laboratory at Imperial College London. The formal supervision will be performed by (Host university supervisor to be decided).
The work will be subdivided in the following tasks:
1. Literature research and familiarization with biological jetting locomotion, and flexible mechanisms and manufacturing methods. 2. Optimization of the shape, stiffness, and actuation speed of the bio-inspired jetting system using numerical tools. 3. Manufacturing and experimental characterization of the developed prototypes and benchmark against conventional system.
The work location will be the Centre for Robotics at Empa (Dübendorf) and will be conducted in collaboration with the Aerial Robotics Laboratory at Imperial College London. The formal supervision will be performed by (Host university supervisor to be decided).
The objective of this project is to explore forms of high-power mechanical energy storage in the form of hybrid flexible and hyperelastic structures to achieve consecutive aquatic escape and underwater locomotion.
A bio-inspired approach will be developed and benchmarked against a more conventional rigid jetting chamber, with the objective of exploring the design penalties of better fluidic efficiency but increased weight characteristic of life-like robots.
The fluid-structure coupling of the jetting system is to be analysed numerically and the obtained model used to explore the design space of the mechanism and general scaling effects. Furthermore, the model will also inform the design of adaptive stiffness elements for switching between higher power jetting for aquatic escape and higher frequency jetting for underwater locomotion.
The developed systems will be analysed experimentally using state of the art water tunnel testing and measuring facilities at Empa.
The objective of this project is to explore forms of high-power mechanical energy storage in the form of hybrid flexible and hyperelastic structures to achieve consecutive aquatic escape and underwater locomotion. A bio-inspired approach will be developed and benchmarked against a more conventional rigid jetting chamber, with the objective of exploring the design penalties of better fluidic efficiency but increased weight characteristic of life-like robots. The fluid-structure coupling of the jetting system is to be analysed numerically and the obtained model used to explore the design space of the mechanism and general scaling effects. Furthermore, the model will also inform the design of adaptive stiffness elements for switching between higher power jetting for aquatic escape and higher frequency jetting for underwater locomotion. The developed systems will be analysed experimentally using state of the art water tunnel testing and measuring facilities at Empa.