“Towards a Mission-Configurable Stealth Underwater Batoid”

BIER Lab has received major funding from the Department of Defense (DoD) Multi-disciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program. The MURI program supports multi-disciplinary research in areas of DoD relevance that intersect more than one traditional science and engineering discipline. A MURI effort typically involves a team of researchers with expertise in a variety of disciplines in order to accelerate both research progress and transition of research results to application.

The overarching objective of the MURI, Towards a Mission-Configurable Stealth Underwater Batoid, is to fully elucidate, actuate and control the dynamics and hydrodynamics of a stealthy, autonomous shape-morphing synthetic batoid wing, capable of propulsion, maneuvering, and station keeping using a combination of undulatory and flapping motions; ultimately to engineer a solution inspired by, but unconstrained by, nature.

To achieve this, a team consisting of participants from the University of Virginia, Princeton University, UCLA and West Chester University has been assembled. The Team combines expertise in marine biology, experimental and numerical hydrodynamics and hydroacoustics, neural control, and active structures. This experience will be fully utilized in the development of an innovative artificial batoid vehicle.

Photos

Publications

UVA Collab site

To learn more about our efforts please email Hilary Bart-Smith.