Functional morphology of the fin rays of teleost fishes.

Ray-finned fishes are notable for having flexible fins that allow for the control of fluid forces. A number of studies have addressed the muscular control, kinematics, and hydrodynamics of flexible fins, but little work has investigated just how flexible ray-finned fish fin rays are, and how flexibility affects their response to environmental perturbations. Analysis of pectoral fin rays of bluegill sunfish showed that the more proximal portion of the fin ray is unsegmented while the distal 60% of the fin ray is segmented.

The effect of fin ray flexural rigidity on the propulsive forces generated by a biorobotic fish pectoral fin.

A biorobotic pectoral fin was developed and used to study how the flexural rigidities of fin rays within a highly deformable fish fin affect the fin's propulsive forces. The design of the biorobotic fin was based on a detailed analysis of the pectoral fin of the bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus). The biorobotic fin was made to execute the kinematics used by the biological fin during steady swimming, and to have structural properties that modeled those of the biological fin.

Advances in comparative physiology from high-speed imaging of animal and fluid motion.

Since the time of Muybridge and Marey in the last half of the nineteenth century, studies of animal movement have relied on some form of high-speed or stop-action imaging to permit analysis of appendage and body motion. In the past ten years, the advent of megapixel-resolution high-speed digital imaging with maximal framing rates of 250 to 100,000 images per second has allowed new views of musculoskeletal function in comparative physiology that now extend to imaging flow around moving animals and the calculation of fluid forces produced by animals moving in fluids. In particular, the technique of digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) has revolutionized our ability to understand how moving animals generate fluid forces and propel themselves through air and water.

Fish biorobotics: kinematics and hydrodynamics of self-propulsion.

As a result of years of research on the comparative biomechanics and physiology of moving through water, biologists and engineers have made considerable progress in understanding how animals moving underwater use their muscles to power movement, in describing body and appendage motion during propulsion, and in conducting experimental and computational analyses of fluid movement and attendant forces. But it is clear that substantial future progress in understanding aquatic propulsion will require new lines of attack. Recent years have seen the advent of one such new avenue that promises to greatly broaden the scope of intellectual opportunity available to researchers: the use of biorobotic models.

Locomotion with flexible propulsors: I. Experimental analysis of pectoral fin swimming in sunfish.

A full understanding of the mechanics of locomotion can be achieved by incorporating descriptions of (1) three-dimensional kinematics of propulsor movement, (2) material properties of the propulsor, (3) power input and control and (4) the fluid dynamics effects of propulsor motion into (5) a three-dimensional computational framework that models the complexity of propulsors that deform and change area. In addition, robotic models would allow for further experimental investigation of changes to propulsor design and for testing of hypothesized relationships between movement and force production. Such a comprehensive suite of data is not yet available for any flexible propulsor.