Oak Grove Middle School Science Class
Swimming Design Team
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Angelical Mary Aurora Kim |
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Biomorphic Explorer: Poseidon 2000  |
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| A. What does your explorer do? | Walk, swim, crawl and glide. It is multi-functional. |
| B. How does your explorer work? | Our explorer has two pieces, an outer shell and an inner body. It is modular. The outer shell is a 6-legged walker that can transport the swimmer module close to water. The outer shell protects the swimmer and makes the design more robust. The swimmer module moves by using a hydrofoil, lateral undulation and rowing. This makes the design very maneuverable. It also uses redundancy because it can swim in so many different ways. If one fails it can use the others! |
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C. List ideas from Biology?
Biological Inspiration |
Insect-like gait for walking. The explorer uses 6 legs so that it always has at least 3 on the surface and is stable. Dolphin tail for swimming. Poseidon uses a hydrofoil for a tail. The hydrofoil works very muck like a wing underwater. The explorer is flying underwater. Part of the lift generated is used for thrust to move it forward. Eel-like body for swimming. The explorer can swim by making waves that pass backward along its body. It has a flexible spine that can act as a spring to make it more efficient. It has a fineness ratio of a swimmer with low drag. It can use undulation on land to crawl. Duck-like webbed feet for paddling. Poseidon can swim by rowing. It has collapsible toes with web membranes between them. When the explorer pushes backward the foot is spread open to move a lot of water. When the foot comes back it folds to reduce drag. It is possible that these feet could be used for gliding. |
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| The FAF Team discussing lateral undulation. |  |
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Last updated 6/23/99