Bio-locomotion in fluids

Designing optimal swimming machines

Swimming creatures delicately float, dance and swarm, yet they can dart to kill or hurl themselves into safe waters, displaying impressive power and, at the same time, incredible elegance. Their seemingly effortless performances are the result of millions of years of evolution which have refined their shapes, motions and behaviours in order to master the complex interplay between their bodies and the surrounding flow.

We combine theory, numerical simulations, and experiments to advance our understanding of the physical mechanisms underlying locomotion in fluids. Furthermore, numerical simulations are coupled to artificial intelligence techniques and embedded in an optimal design cycle, to identify optimal swimming shapes, patterns and cooperative behaviours given a specified objective such as efficiency or speed.

FTLE_2D_vorticity-vertical

Bibliography

Research Projects

Soft CreaturesSoft Creatures

CyborgsProject type

Viscous StreamingViscous Streaming

Flow NumericsProject type

The Vizzies 2016The Vizzies 2016

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