CAREER: Integrated Mechanics, Sensing, and Control in Multi-Fin Swimming - Biological Strategies for Systems with Distributed Sensing, Actuation, and Tunable Plant Properties

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The scientific goal of this project is to understand biological strategies used in the sensory-based control of kinematics and plant properties in sophisticated locomotor systems. This research uses the bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) as a model for investigating how biological systems integrate distributed sensing, neural based control, and tunable mechanics to achieve remarkable levels of performance. The sunfish is selected because it is representative of a large class of fish that use multiple fins and multiple swimming gaits, and that integrate a great deal of sensory information, to swim with extraordinary agility across a wide range of fluidic conditions. This work will be accomplished using a combination of behavioral studies of the swimming sunfish; mathematical investigations of the mechanics and control of multi-fin swimming; and experimental studies with biorobotic models of the sunfish locomotor, sensory, and control systems. This research program will lead to new perspectives for the design of high performance systems based on biology, and will provide insight into principles common to neurobiology, behavioral biology, and engineering. These new perspectives will help us design systems that exhibit characteristics which are hallmarks of animal systems - autonomy, agility, robustness, efficiency - but which have been difficult to achieve using traditional engineering approaches. Example systems include autonomous swimming vehicles that navigate oceans and explore cluttered harbors, and high performance aircraft that modulate their structure so that an aircraft automatically tunes itself to different flight regimes. Partnerships with the New Jersey Academy of Aquatic Sciences and with the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University will provide an avenue for translating research discoveries into educational modules for middle- and high-school students. This will introduce teachers and students in the Camden and Philadelphia public school districts to engineering and math through the lens of biological systems.