Current Research | Biomimetics

CFD and control coupling for numerical-simulations-on-bio-inspired-swimming-robots

By Marvin Wright, Dr Qing Xiao

This numerical simulation is conducted in ANSYS Fluent 19.2 coupled with the in-house developed mobile multibody dynamics and control User Defined Function (UDF). The UDF enables the simulation of the dynamics and control of an unfixed multi body system connected by revolving joints and its FSI induced 6DoF (3DoF for 2D case) motion in the inertia frame. The at equilibrium position NACA0012 shaped swimmer is divided into 10 elements (9 joints) with no separating gap. By simultaneous sinusoidal rotation of the joints, with an amplitude and phase distribution along the whole body, the swimmer mimics BCF carangiform fish swimming motion. Furthermore, turning in 2 dimensional plane (Yaw) is achieved by adding camber along the body. The presented motion of the swimmer is following velocity and yaw set points achieved by two separate PID controller. The below video shows a fully PID controlled U turn manoeuvre from an initial still body.