1] Biology and Environmental Sciences, Roger Williams University, Bristol, Rhode Island 02809, USA [2].
1] Biology, Providence College, Providence, Rhode Island 02918, USA [2].
Nat Commun. 2014;5:3293. doi: 10.1038/ncomms4293.
Animal propulsors such as wings and fins bend during motion and these bending patterns are believed to contribute to the high efficiency of animal movements compared with those of man-made designs. However, efforts to implement flexible designs have been met with contradictory performance results. Consequently, there is no clear understanding of the role played by propulsor flexibility or, more fundamentally, how flexible propulsors should be designed for optimal performance. Here we demonstrate that during steady-state motion by a wide range of animals, from fruit flies to humpback whales, operating in either air or water, natural propulsors bend in similar ways within a highly predictable range of characteristic motions. By providing empirical design criteria derived from natural propulsors that have convergently arrived at a limited design space, these results provide a new framework from which to understand and design flexible propulsors.
动物推进器，如翅膀和鳍，在运动过程中会弯曲，这些弯曲模式被认为有助于提高动物运动的效率，使其优于人为设计。然而，人们努力实施柔性设计，但却得到了相互矛盾的性能结果。因此，对于推进器的灵活性所起的作用，或者更根本地说，对于应该如何设计灵活的推进器以获得最佳性能，目前还没有明确的认识。在这里，我们展示了从果蝇到座头鲸等各种动物在空气或水中以稳定的状态运动时，其天然推进器在高度可预测的特征运动范围内以相似的方式弯曲。通过提供从已经趋同于有限设计空间的天然推进器中得出的经验设计标准，这些结果为理解和设计灵活的推进器提供了一个新的框架。
