Measuring the Local Viscosity and Velocity of Fluids Using a Biomimetic Tactile Whisker

A novel technique for determining the relative visco-density of fluids using an actuated flexible beam inspired by the tactile whiskers of marine mammals is presented. This was developed for the in-situ calibration of a tactile whisker based system for measuring flow velocity around autonomous robots working in complex underwater environments.

[1]  P. Mulhearn,et al.  Mapping Seabed Vegetation with Sidescan Sonar , 2001 .

[2]  T. Prescott,et al.  Biomimetic vibrissal sensing for robots , 2011, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[3]  O. Reynolds.  III. An experimental investigation of the circumstances which determine whether the motion of water shall be direct or sinuous, and of the law of resistance in parallel channels , 1883, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London.

[4]  Michael S. Triantafyllou,et al.  Lock-in of the vortex-induced vibrations of a long tensioned beam in shear flow , 2011 .

[5]  Marc Vantorre,et al.  Revision of the nautical bottom concept of Zeebrugge based on the manoeuvrability of deep-drafted container ships , 2005 .

[6]  L. Goodman,et al.  On observing acoustic backscattering from salinity turbulence. , 2011, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[7]  E. Born,et al.  Underwater observations of foraging free-living Atlantic walruses (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) and estimates of their food consumption , 2003, Polar Biology.

[8]  G. H. Koopmann,et al.  The vortex wakes of vibrating cylinders at low Reynolds numbers , 1967, Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

[9]  Frederike D. Hanke,et al.  Flow sensing by pinniped whiskers , 2011, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[10]  J. B. Segur,et al.  Viscosity of Glycerol and Its Aqueous Solutions , 1951 .

[11]  H. Bleckmann,et al.  Hydrodynamic Trail-Following in Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina) , 2001, Science.

[12]  Frederike D. Hanke,et al.  Harbor seal vibrissa morphology suppresses vortex-induced vibrations , 2010, Journal of Experimental Biology.

[13]  Mathew H. Evans,et al.  Tactile Discrimination Using Active Whisker Sensors , 2012, IEEE Sensors Journal.

[14]  Michael S. Triantafyllou,et al.  Performance analysis and characterization of bio-inspired whisker sensors for underwater applications , 2013, 2013 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[15]  Anthony G. Pipe,et al.  Simultaneous localisation and mapping on a multi-degree of freedom biomimetic whiskered robot , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[16]  Martin J. Pearson,et al.  Object Localisation Using Active Whiskers on Underwater Autonomous Walking Robots , 2011 .

[17]  Steven Vogel,et al.  Simple Flow Tanks for Research and Teaching , 1978 .