Science Advances· 2026Q1
Minimal-actuation feather star–inspired soft swimmers for multimodal 3D maneuverability
- 1citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
A soft robotic swimmer inspired by feather stars uses only two pneumatic inputs to achieve three distinct 3D swimming modes (pulsation, propulsion, reorientation), including ascension, descension, hovering, and rotation.
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Key points
- Soft robotic swimmer inspired by feather stars uses two pneumatic inputs for 3D maneuverability.
- Achieves three distinct swimming modes: pulsation, propulsion, and reorientation.
- Demonstrates multimodal 3D motions including ascension, descension, hovering, and rotation.
- Reaches a maximum swimming speed of 1.64 body lengths per second.
- Mechanical intelligence leverages monostable instability for simplified control.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Complex, three-dimensional (3D) motions typically require actuator arrays and complex control architectures. Here, we present a feather star–inspired soft robotic swimmer that uses only two pneumatic inputs to produce three distinct and switchable swimming modes: jellyfish-like pulsation, fishlike propulsion, and rotor-like reorientation. The robot owes this ability to mechanical intelligence: It leverages a monostable instability in its flexible arms to convert two control actuation inputs into 3D swimming modes, including ascension and descension, forward and backward swimming, hovering, and rotation. The robot achieves a maximum swimming speed of 1.64 body lengths per second, minimum cost of transport of 17.6, and peak rotation speed of 90° per second. Particle image velocimetry analyses and computational fluid dynamics simulations reveal distinct vortex structures governing thrust generation and/or rotational torque in each swimming mode. The robot’s minimal input yet multimodal output demonstrates how mechanical intelligence can enable adaptive and multifunctional, yet simple and energy-efficient, robotic and biological swimming mechanisms.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Science Advances, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Biomedical Engineering
Biomedical EngineeringEngineering