EAPSI:Leaping Out of Water - Fabrication of a Bio-Inspired Robotic Jumping Copepod

Chang Brian L, Blacksburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

Copepods are small crustaceans (~2 mm) with long antennae that inhabit nearly all aquatic systems. A few copepod species are able to jump out of water to escape predators. This jumping behavior is impressive because creatures at such small scales normally have difficulty breaking the water surface. To understand the jumping mechanism, a bio-inspired robot will be designed and built to mimic the movement of the jumping copepods. This project will be conducted at Seoul National University under the mentorship of Dr. Ho-Young Kim, an expert in the field of bio-fluid mechanics and microfluidics. The goal of this project is to create a bio-inspired jumping robot based on the kinematics and fluid dynamics of a jumping copepod?s aerial escape mechanism. By determining the forces generated by the robot and the calculating the resulting flow field, a deeper understanding of the copepod will be gained. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) and force measurement experiments will be performed on a fabricated antenna rowing mechanism in order to visualize the velocity flow field and understand the forces acting at different scales. Then, a self-sustaining copepod robot will be fabricated to mimic the escape mechanism based on a parameter space inspired by nature. These tests will give greater insight on the necessary forces to overcome surface tension and the associated flow fields around a jumping copepod. This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the National Research Foundation of Korea.