Critical Timescales for Burrowing in Undersea Substrates via Localized Fluidization, Demonstrated by RoboClam: A Robot Inspired by Atlantic Razor Clams
Name
Critical timescales.pdf
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4 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
106465d1d6dc3f5b39c521cbc122003f
Author(s)
Winter, Amos G.
Deits, Robin Lloyd Henderson
Dorsch, Daniel S.
Date Issued
August 2013
Journal
Volume 6A: 37th Mechanisms and Robotics Conference
Publisher
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Citation
Winter, Amos G., Robin L. H. Deits, and Daniel S. Dorsch. “Critical Timescales for Burrowing in Undersea Substrates via Localized Fluidization, Demonstrated by RoboClam: A Robot Inspired by Atlantic Razor Clams.” Volume 6A: 37th Mechanisms and Robotics Conference (August 4, 2013).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The Atlantic razor clam (Ensis directus) burrows into underwater soil by using motions of its shell to locally fluidize the surrounding substrate. The energy associated with movement through fluidized soil — characterized by a depth-independent density and viscosity — scales linearly with depth. In contrast, moving through static soil requires energy that scales with depth squared. For E. directus, this translates to a 10X reduction in the energy required to reach observed burrow depths. For engineers, localized fluidization offers a mechanically simple and purely kinematic method to dramatically reduce burrowing energy. This concept is demonstrated with RoboClam, an E. directus-inspired robot. Using a genetic algorithm to generate digging kinematics, RoboClam has achieved localized fluidization and burrowing performance comparable to that of the animal, with a linear energy-depth relationship. In this paper, we present the critical timescales and associated kinematics necessary for achieving localized fluidization, which are calculated from soil parameters and validated via RoboClam and E. directus testing.
MIT Department
MIT-SUTD Collaboration Office
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1115/DETC2013-12798
