Pisciform Locomotion of an Improved Modular Biolocomotion Emulator

This paper presents an experiment conducted to study the pisciform locomotion of an improved modular biolocomotion emulator in which the hydrodynamic and kinematic data are collected as the device mimics the body shape of real fishes in swimming action while being towed along a water tank at a steady speed. The results not only provide insights on how to select the optimal morphologies and locomotion gaits for such a biomimetic device but are also used to validate different proposed reduced-order model of the unsteady flow for the rapid development of future underwater autonomous vehicle.