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

该项目的科学目标是了解在复杂运动系统中基于感官的运动学和植物特性控制中使用的生物学策略。本研究以蓝鳃翻车鱼（Lepomis macrochirus）为模型，研究生物系统如何整合分布式传感、基于神经的控制和可调力学来实现卓越的性能水平。太阳鱼之所以被选中，是因为它是一种大型鱼类的代表，这种鱼类使用多个鳍和多种游泳步态，并整合了大量的感官信息，能够在各种流体条件下以非凡的敏捷度游泳。这项工作将通过对游动的太阳鱼的行为研究；多鳍游泳力学与控制的数学研究以及太阳鱼运动、感觉和控制系统的仿生模型的实验研究。该研究项目将为基于生物学的高性能系统设计带来新的视角，并将为神经生物学、行为生物学和工程学的共同原理提供见解。这些新观点将帮助我们设计出具有动物系统特征的系统——自主性、敏捷性、稳健性和效率——这些都是传统工程方法难以实现的。示例系统包括在海洋中航行和探索杂乱港口的自主游泳车辆，以及调整其结构以使飞机自动调整到不同飞行状态的高性能飞机。与新泽西水产科学院和德雷塞尔大学自然科学院的合作将为将研究发现转化为初中和高中学生的教育模块提供途径。这将通过生物系统的视角向卡姆登和费城公立学区的教师和学生介绍工程和数学。

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.