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SUMMARY:MechE Colloquium: Optimum control strategies for maximum thrust pr
 oduction in underwater undulatory swimming
DTSTART:20250506T120000
DTEND:20250506T130000
DTSTAMP:20261010T024326Z
UID:00467d92f205a1abb313026fb0e118aeaf3c5a02daea9ffceb542628
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Médéric Argentina\, Nice Institute of Physics\, Côte
  d'Azur University\nAbstract: Fishes\, cetaceans\, and many other aquatic
  vertebrates undulate their bodies to propel themselves through water. Swi
 mming requires an intricate interplay between sensing the environment\, ma
 king decisions\, controlling internal dynamics\, and moving the body in in
 teraction with the external medium. Within this sequence of actions initia
 ting locomotion\, biological and physical laws manifest complex and nonlin
 ear effects\, which does not prevent natural swimmers to demonstrate effic
 ient movement. This raises two complementary questions: how to model this 
 intricacy and how to abstract it for practical swimming. In the context of
  robotics\, the second question is of paramount importance to build effici
 ent artificial swimmers driven by digital signals and mechanics. In this s
 tudy\, we tackle these two questions by leveraging a biomimetic robotic sw
 immer as a platform for investigating optimal control strategies for thrus
 t generation. Through a combination of machine learning techniques and int
 uitive models\, we identify a control signal that maximizes thrust product
 ion. Optimum tail-beat frequency and amplitude result from the subtle inte
 rplay between the swimmer's internal dynamics and its interaction with the
  surrounding fluid. We then propose a practical implementation for autonom
 ous robotic swimmers that requires no prior knowledge of systems or equati
 ons. Direct fluid-structure simulations confirms the effectiveness and rel
 iability of the proposed approach. Hence\, our findings bridge fluid dynam
 ics\, robotics\, and biology\, providing valuable insights into the physic
 s of aquatic locomotion.\n\n\n\nBiography: Médéric Argentina is a Profe
 ssor of Physics at Université Côte d’Azur and Director of the Graduate
  School SPECTRUM\, which brings together over 450 researchers across disci
 plines. His research lies at the intersection of fluid dynamics\, nonlinea
 r systems\, and biomechanics\, with a particular focus on the physics of u
 ndulatory swimming and bio-inspired locomotion. Trained in France and with
  postdoctoral experience at institutions such as Harvard and Cambridge\, h
 e has developed a distinctive interdisciplinary approach combining theory\
 , numerical modeling\, and experimental techniques.
LOCATION:MED 0 1418 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==MED%200%201418 https://epf
 l.zoom.us/j/64267570786
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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