Energy harvesting from the tail beating of a carangiform swimmer using ionic polymer-metal composites.

In this paper, we study energy harvesting from the beating of a biomimetic fish tail using ionic polymer-metal composites. The design of the biomimetic tail is based on carangiform swimmers and is specifically inspired by the morphology of the heterocercal tail of thresher sharks. The tail is constituted of a soft silicone matrix molded in the form of the heterocercal tail and reinforced by a steel beam of rectangular cross section.