On the high-performance swimming of a tuna-inspired underwater vehicle Part I: Design and performance study*

Comprehensive comparative studies between bio-inspired robots and their biological counterparts are largely absent. In this study, we developed a thunniform robotic platform to study essential components of thunniform locomotion: tail beat frequency and amplitude; swimming speed; caudal fin pitch angle and flexibility; morphology; and midline kinematics. The platform achieved a maximum tail beat frequency and swimming speed of 15 Hz and 4.0 BL/s, respectively. High-speed video captured the swimming mechanics of the platform from the ventral view at 1000 frames/s. Midline kinematics extracted from these videos were analyzed and compared against corresponding biological data. In addition, the platform’s power consumption and static thrust were rigorously measured at various tail beat frequencies, indicating the high efficiency of the platform.