Hydrodynamics of high-speed robots driven by the combustion-enabled transient driving method

Abstract

Underwater vehicles play important roles in underwater observation, ocean resource exploration, and sample collection. Soft robots are a unique type of underwater vehicles due to their good environmental adaptability and motion flexibility, although they are weak in terms of actuation and response ability. The transient driving method (TDM) was developed to resolve these shortcomings. However, the interaction between the robots’ swift motions and flow fields has not yet been fully studied. In this study, a computational fluid dynamic model is developed to simulate the fluid fields disturbed by transient high-speed motions generated by the robots. Focusing on the dependence of robot dynamics on thrust force and eccentricity, typical structures of both flow and turbulence fields around the robots are obtained to quantitatively analyze robot kinematic performance, velocity distribution, vortex systems, surface pressure, and turbulence. The results demonstrate the high-speed regions at the robots’ heads and tails and the vortex systems due to sudden expansion, indicating a negative relationship between the maximum fluid velocity and eccentricity. The reported results provide useful information for studying the environmental interaction abilities of robots during operating acceleration and steering tasks.