Nature-Inspired Inventions · Volume 018
Dolphins
Streamlined Underwater Robotic Vehicles
In 1936, the British zoologist James Gray did a calculation that puzzled scientists for decades. He estimated the drag on a swimming dolphin, assumed its muscles could produce about as much power per kilogram as other mammals' muscles, and concluded that dolphins should not be able to swim as fast as sailors reported. Either the dolphin's muscles were extraordinarily powerful, or its body had unusually low drag — perhaps by keeping the flow over its skin smooth and laminar.
- Price
- $6.99
- Format
- PDF ebook
- Length
- 30 pages
- Edition
- First Edition
Checkout opens soon. Download the free sample in the meantime.
Or get all 20 volumes for $59 on the series page.
Inside this volume
- Introduction: The Puzzle of the Fast Dolphin
- How Dolphins Swim
- Dolphin Anatomy
- Drag and Oscillating-Foil Propulsion
- History of Dolphin Research and Dolphin-Inspired Technology
- Translating Dolphins Into Engineering
- Mechanisms and Materials
- Control and Navigation
- Ten Dolphin-Inspired Design Concepts
- Testing Dolphin-Inspired Robots
- Failure Modes and Limitations
- Approval, Ethics and Market
- Design Workbook
- Case Study — A Dolphin-Form Wildlife Survey Robot
Plus appendices of formulas and rules of thumb, common reader questions, a glossary and further reading.
More water volumes
