title: Design and implementation of a biomimetic turtle hydrofoil for an autonomous underwater vehicle.
abstract: This paper presents the design and implementation of a turtle hydrofoil for an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). The final design of the AUV must have navigation performance like a turtle, which has also been the biomimetic inspiration for the design of the hydrofoil and propulsion system. The hydrofoil design is based on a National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) 0014 hydrodynamic profile. During the design stage, four different propulsion systems were compared in terms of propulsion path, compactness, sealing and required power. The final implementation is based on a ball-and-socket mechanism because it is very compact and provides three degrees of freedom (DoF) to the hydrofoil with very few restrictions on the propulsion path. The propulsion obtained with the final implementation of the hydrofoil has been empirically evaluated in a water channel comparing different motion strategies. The results obtained have confirmed that the proposed turtle hydrofoil controlled with a mechanism with three DoF generates can be used in the future implementation of the planned AUV.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Industrial Engineering, University of Lleida, Jaume II, 69, Lleida 25001, Spain. dfont@diei.udl.cat
authors.forename: Davinia
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Font
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tresanchez
authors.forename: Cedric
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Siegentahler
authors.forename: Tomàs
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pallejà
authors.forename: Mercè
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Teixidó
authors.forename: Cedric
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pradalier
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Palacin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001699:Biometry; D004867:Equipment Design; D023421:Models, Animal; D018986:Motor Vehicles; D014426:Turtles; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D014867:Water