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Bio-inspired micro/mini propulsion at air-water interface: A review

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Abstract

This paper reviews and discusses the propulsion of water-floating natural creatures and man-made devices at the air-water interface. Natural creatures with a large ratio of body weight to surface tension force normally propel themselves by repeatedly slapping and stroking their feet while natural creatures with a small ratio of body weight to surface tension force are floated dominantly by surface tension and are propelled by various propulsion mechanisms. Some animals developed unique walking and propelling methods such as leaping, sailing, meniscus climbing, and utilizing of Marangoni effect. Inspired by the natural creatures, a large number of water walking robots and propulsion methods have been developed. Many of them are based on the walking and propelling of water striders, although they require complicated fabrication and structures. Some of the recently developed devices are propelled by the gradient of surface tension (via addition of heat or surfactant) or by streaming flows (induced from oscillations of bubbles or interfaces). These methods need relatively simple mechanical structures and fabrication but are effective only in limited conditions. The bio-inspired water floating and propelling systems can be applied to environment monitoring systems, surveillance security systems, educational robots, and toys. In particular, this paper suggests applying those systems to “smart dust” sensory robots and pollutant collecting devices.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA

    Junqi Yuan & Sung Kwon Cho

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  1. Junqi Yuan
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  2. Sung Kwon Cho
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Correspondence to Sung Kwon Cho.

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Junqi Yuan received the B.Sc. degree and M.Sc. in thermal engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, in 2002 and 2005, respectively. In 2005, He joined Emerson Electric Co., Shanghai, China, as a project engineer and participated in more than 10 power plants’ control system design and service projects. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering at University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA. His research interest includes the design and study of various water propulsion systems.

Sung Kwon Cho is an Associate Professor, BP America Faculty Fellow in Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Cho received a BS, MS, and Ph.D. degrees at Seoul National University in 1990, 1992, and 1998, respectively. After finishing a postdoctoral course in UCLA, Dr. Cho joined the faculty at University of Pittsburgh in 2003. Since then, Dr. Cho’s main research focus has been in the area of microfluidics with developing micro/nano devices and systems for a wide range of applications including lab-on-a-chip and energy conversion and with investigating underlying scientific/engineering phenomena in these systems. Topics include, for example, in-droplet concentrator and separators, airborne micro particle samplers, micro bubble actuators, micro bubble pumps, micro bubble tweezers, micro propulsion system, and so on. Dr. Cho has been carrying out these research projects under many federally funded supports (NSF, DHS and DOD) as well as local seed grants.

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Yuan, J., Cho, S.K. Bio-inspired micro/mini propulsion at air-water interface: A review. J Mech Sci Technol 26, 3761–3768 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-012-1002-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-012-1002-6

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