About the project
On this project, you will advance the state of the art in ray robots by implementing a bio-inspired sensing and morphing robotic ray.
Recent developments in ray robots have demonstrated effective swimming despite their limited morphing kinematics and conventional control. However, a significant challenge for morphing water and air vehicles is finding the optimal configuration for various conditions and missions, and accurately determining the vehicle's state when morphing interacts with different flow states.
Current ray robots typically have limited degrees of freedom, actuating their wings (pectoral fins) by either undulating with low amplitude, slow travelling waves or by oscillating the wing with a large amplitude flap. They also use conventional sensing which provides little information on the vehicle's flow state.
On this project you will develop a bio-inspired robotic ray that will perform a wide range of kinematic movements inspired by real ray kinematics and will use an array of pressure sensors that mimic the sensor distribution profiles of both undulation-dominant and oscillation-dominant ray species. A neural network will be used for state estimation and performance measurements, while load cell measurements will assess the system's closed-loop performance in improving manoeuvrability and endurance.
As part of this project, you will:
- construct a multi-actuator wing/fin
- integrate a distributed sensor array
- conduct system-characterisation tests in our Recirculating Water Tunnel (RWT) facility
- train a supervised-learning network to estimate the wing's state and forces using our high-performance computing facility, Iridis
- evaluate the system's performance in the RWT facility
The Centre for Doctoral Training in Complex Integrated Systems for Defence & Security (CISDnS) is committed to promoting equality, diversity and inclusivity. We welcome all applicants regardless of their gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or age, and will give full consideration to applicants seeking flexible working patterns and those who have taken a career break or are transitioning into a new role. The University has a generous maternity policy, onsite childcare facilities, and offers a range of benefits to help ensure employees’ well-being and work-life balance.
