Award Abstract # 1751548
CAREER: Modeling and Control of Undulating-Fin Underwater Vessels in Close Formation

NSF Org: CMMI
Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation
Recipient: FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY
Initial Amendment Date: March 15, 2018
Latest Amendment Date: May 31, 2022
Award Number: 1751548
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Marcello Canova
mcanova@nsf.gov
 (703)292-2576
CMMI
 Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation
ENG
 Directorate for Engineering
Start Date: June 1, 2018
End Date: November 30, 2024 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $500,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $697,000.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2018 = $500,000.00
FY 2019 = $91,000.00

FY 2020 = $50,000.00

FY 2021 = $36,000.00

FY 2022 = $20,000.00
History of Investigator:
  • Oscar Curet (Principal Investigator)
    ocuret@fau.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Florida Atlantic University
777 GLADES RD
BOCA RATON
FL  US  33431-6424
(561)297-0777
Sponsor Congressional District: 23
Primary Place of Performance: Florida Atlantic University
777 Glades Road
Boca Raton
FL  US  33431-8567
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
23
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): Q266L2NDAVP1
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): GOALI-Grnt Opp Acad Lia wIndus,
Dynamics, Control and System D
Primary Program Source: 01002021DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
01001920DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01002223DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01001819DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01002122DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 8024, 9102, 034E, 9179, 9178, 019Z, 9251, 9231, 7218, 030E, 116E, 115E, 1045
Program Element Code(s): 150400, 756900
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.041

ABSTRACT

This Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) project will study underwater vehicles equipped with a bio-inspired fin-based propulsion system. The specific configuration under study consists of a single undulating fin running along the length of the vehicle, which controls both forward motion and directional maneuvers. The project will first use analytical, computational, and experimental studies to describe how the fin shape and motion relates to the movement of a single vessel. Those results will then be extended to cooperative groups of multiple vessels traveling in formation. Of particular interest are the ways in which formations can make full use of the control inputs available from each vessel's undulating fin to improve collective maneuverability and efficiency, and to alter far-field wake patterns. The results of the project will be applicable to other related undulating propulsion and control configurations. The development of these multi-agent underwater systems will benefit the nation scientifically and economically, by allowing efficient and versatile operation to explore for resources and perform oceanographic observations, with minimal disturbance to the underwater environment. These systems will also be important to the nation's defense, due to their ability to travel long distances, perform multiple simultaneous independent tasks, and control their acoustic signature. Groups underrepresented in engineering -- in particular Hispanic students -- will be recruited for this project, thus increasing the diversity of the engineering student body and the future US workforce.

This research project will investigate a class of undulating fin underwater vehicles, both singly and collectively, leading to understanding of how hydrodynamic interactions affect the speed, wake signature, energy efficiency, and maneuverability of the vessels and the formation. Critically, each agent should fully exploit hydrodynamic interaction within the system, and also with the surrounding fluid environment. The objectives of the research program include (i) measuring the dynamics and wake of single and multiple vessels; (ii) developing a dynamic model of the system; (iii) establishing a control model relating parameters in the fin kinematics to the motion of the vessel; (iv) studying the performance and hydrodynamic interaction of an array of bio-inspired underwater vessels. The research will combine experimental work and modeling using a novel bio-mimetic vessel with undulating fin propulsion. The methods will include measurements of kinematics, hydrodynamic forces, flow fields and power consumption.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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Coral, William and Rossi, Claudio and Curet, Oscar M and Castro, Diego "Design and assessment of a flexible fish robot actuated by shape memory alloys" Bioinspiration & Biomimetics , v.13 , 2018 10.1088/1748-3190/aad0ae Citation Details
English, Ian and Liu, Hanlin and Curet, Oscar M "Robotic device shows lack of momentum enhancement for gymnotiform swimmers" Bioinspiration & Biomimetics , v.14 , 2019 10.1088/1748-3190/aaf983 Citation Details
Frame, Jennifer and Lopez, Nick and Curet, Oscar and Engeberg, Erik D "Thrust force characterization of free-swimming soft robotic jellyfish" Bioinspiration & Biomimetics , v.13 , 2018 10.1088/1748-3190/aadcb3 Citation Details
Garcia, G. and Uddin, M. and Verma, S. and and Curet, O. "Reinforcement Learning for Maneuver Control of a Bio-Inspired Vessel with Undulating Fin Propulsion" The 32nd International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference , 2022 Citation Details
Kazemi, Amirkhosro and Castillo, Luciano and Curet, Oscar M. "Mangrove roots model suggest an optimal porosity to prevent erosion" Scientific Reports , v.11 , 2021 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-88119-5 Citation Details
Liu, Hanlin and Curet, Oscar "Swimming performance of a bio-inspired robotic vessel with undulating fin propulsion" Bioinspiration & Biomimetics , v.13 , 2018 10.1088/1748-3190/aacd26 Citation Details
Uddin, Mohammad and Garcia, Gonzalo and Curet, Oscar "Underwater collision avoidance using undulating elongated fin propulsion" Ocean Engineering , v.285 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2023.115335 Citation Details
Uddin, Mohammad I. and Curet, Oscar M. "Modeling and Control of a Bio-Inspired Underwater Vessel with Undulating-Fin Propulsion" OCEANS 2018 MTS/IEEE , 2018 10.1109/OCEANS.2018.8604543 Citation Details
Uddin, Mohammad I and Garcia, Gonzalo A and Curet, Oscar M "Force scaling and efficiency of elongated median fin propulsion" Bioinspiration & Biomimetics , v.17 , 2022 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-3190/ac6375 Citation Details

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

A detailed understanding of the hydrodynamic interaction of a bio-mimetic array of underwater vehicles is a necessary, but challenging, aspect to improve the performance, scope and scale of underwater exploration. In particular, this project studied an underwater vehicles equipped with a bio-inspired fin-based propulsion system for high maneuverability and station-keeping control. The specific configuration under study consisted of a single undulating fin running along the length of the robot, which controls both forward motion and directional maneuvers. The project used analytical, computational, and experimental studies to describe how the fin kinematics relates to the movement of a single robot and propulsive performance. Those results were then extended to study the control at different flow conditions and in the wake of a cylinder.   

We used experimental and analytical results for the following objectives. 1) Characterize the propulsive performance, maneuver control and flow measurements for a single vessel with fin-based propulsion as a function of fin kinematics and wave shape. 2) Characterize the propulsive performance, hydrodynamic interaction and wake structure generated by the vessel swimming in the wake of a cylinder and a group of oscillating propulsion in close formation. Furthermore, we provided research and educational activities including the development of a new undergraduate course and a high school educational module incorporating biomimetics, robotics and fluid mechanics. 

We successfully replicated several maneuvers including forward swimming, reversed motion, diving, station-keeping and vertical swimming using a vessel with a single undulating fin. A series of experiments were performed as a function of fin frequency, wavelength and traveling wave direction to measure swimming velocities, orientation angles and mean power consumption. A scaling force law for undulating fin propulsion was developed based on experimental data. A closed loop architecture for a vessel with undulating fin propulsion was developed and tested to control position, heading and speed. Tests were performed in laboratory conditions and outside settings. A Reinforcement learning training model was developed and tested to control undulating fin kinematics. In addition, we explored a novel propulsive and directional control method in which counter-propagating waves were used to control forward/backward swimming and hovering, and a sigmoidal spatiotemporal pattern was applied along the elongated membrane for heading control. The flexible membrane was actuated such that waveforms were replicated in a similar manner to the biological inspiration. Flow measurements using Particle Image Velocimetry were measured to analyze the fluid dynamics generated by the undulating fin for different kinematics. Complementary experiments of pitching foils, patch of cylinders and stingrays helped us to understand the complex hydrodynamic interaction of bio-mimetic arrays. Understanding the fluid dynamics and swimming performance around this new prototype will permit us to develop and control a new generation of highly maneuverable, long-endurance vessels, with controllable acoustic signature.

Outcomes of this project includes 7 peer-reviewed papers, 2 conference proceedings, 7 conference presentations, and one provisional patent. This project has also provided training and educations for 2 Ph.D. students, 2 master students, 1 postdoctoral researcher, 6 REU students, 3 RET participants, and 2 high school students.

 


Last Modified: 05/23/2025
Modified by: Oscar M Curet

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