University of Virginia
This bio-inspired autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) has been developed as a scientific platform to understand the superior swimming characteristics of batoid fish such as manta rays.
The MantaBot consists of two parts: a rigid body rendered from a computer tomography scanning image of a cownose ray and a pair of soft fins driven by tensegrity-based actuators. The soft fins of this vehicle are highly flexible, have complex planforms, and undergo an oscillatory motion.
Wevolver 2023