A real fish can accelerate at a rate of eight to twelve g’s – as fast as a NASA rocket. To scientists, the speed is difficult to explain (the question is known as Gray’s paradox). In an attempt to understand how the flap of thin fish tail can push a fish faster than a propeller, scientists are working on a biobot version of a pickerel (a species of pike fish) with a spring-wound fiberglass exoskeleton and a skin made of silicone rubber.
Movies and test runs of the robopike can be viewed here.
Filed under: robot fish | Tagged: fluid dynamics, Gray's paradox, propeller, propulsion, robopike, robot pickerel, robotic fish
