Biologically inspired actuation mechanism for an aquatic soft robot

Within the broad variety of bioinspired aquatic robots that manly use conventional propulsion mechanims, e.g. propellers, some efforts have also been adressed to exploit the benefits of pulsed jet propulsion. In contrast to steady jet propulsion mechanisms, one major benefit is, that they can potentially be used to perform high-accuray maneuvers, by producing short and impulsive accelerations. Also in terms of efficiency, unsteady jet propulsion can be advantageous.
The proposed thesis intends to model and optimize the inner structure of a squid-inspired soft robot. In the frame of biomimetics, a suitable biological mechanism will be abstracted, that can be used to articulate the soft mantle structure in a manner that pulsed jet propulsion is achieved. Thereby considering feasible simplified models for the dynamic behaviour of the squid mantle; the fluid dynamics will be simplified to "added mass effects'' and the squid structure will be partially simulated under quasi-static assumptions. Moreover, technological restrictions in actuation are considered.