AeroDima: a cheetah-inspired aerodynamic tail for rapid manoeuvrability

Bright, Daryn

AeroDima: a cheetah-inspired aerodynamic tail for rapid manoeuvrability

Thesis / Dissertation

2024

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Electrical Engineering

Faculty

Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment

Abstract

The cheetah, the fastest land animal has been hypothesised to use its tail for manoeuvrability and has been the source for many bio-inspired robotic tails. However, the use of a lightweight tail to achieve the same effects has not be studied. This paper goes into the study of using a lightweight, aerodynamic tail to increase manoeuvrability on a wheeled platform, AeroDima. This is achieved by studying the aerodynamics of a cheetah's tail in a wind tunnel to develop a quasi-steady state model. A bio-inspired aerodynamic tail was then designed to maximise drag forces. This bio-inspired tail was also studied in a wind tunnel and compared to the cheetah tail's model. The tail required a platform to operate on, so AeroDima was designed and manufactured. The tail, designed to be a 3DOF underactuated system, was designed to test the effects of the tail on high-speed manoeuvres through a roll motion swing of the tail. The system was tested both in simulation and physical experiments. The simulation, developed with MATLAB's Simscape Multibody toolbox, was designed to be a comprehensive model of AeroDima.

Keywords

Engineering

Reference:

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