Achievement

Faculty participant George Lauder and trainee Erin Blevins have developed a self-propelling robotic model fin that gives insights into stingray fin function. While this "Roboray" is far from biomimetic -- it is in fact a bi-actuated Neoprene sheet with heave and pitch values based on stingray kinematics -- its simplicity makes it an excellent tool to examine the basic flows generated by an undulating fin. In particular, the "Roboray" revealed that ground effects have a large impact on ray swimming, insights that were not apparent from measurements of the hydrodynamics of real rays -- undulating pectoral fins, where the complex flow patterns made it difficult to understand thrust production.