Dynamics and optimal actuation of a three-sphere low-Reynolds-number swimmer with muscle-like arms

DOI10.1007/S10440-016-0087-9zbMATH Open1375.70012arXiv1702.00365OpenAlexW2564823165MaRDI QIDQ1675474FDOQ1675474

Authors: Alessandro Montino, Antonio DeSimone 

Publication date: 27 October 2017

Published in: Acta Applicandae Mathematicae (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The three-sphere swimmer by Najafi and Golestanian is composed of three spheres connected by two arms. The case in which the swimmer can control the lengths of the two arms has been studied in detail. Here we study a variation of the model in which the swimmer's arms are constructed according to Hill's model of muscular contraction. The swimmer is able to control the tension developed in the active components of the arms. The two shape parameters and the tensions acting on the two arms are then obtained by solving a system of ordinary differential equations. We study the qualitative properties of the solutions, compute analytically their leading order approximation and compare them with numerical simulations. We also formulate and solve some optimisation problems, aimed at finding the actuation strategies maximising performance, for various performance measures. Finally, we discuss the structure of the governing equations of our microswimmers from the point of view of control theory. We show that our systems are control affine systems with drift.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.00365

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zbMATH Keywords

optimal controlmicroswimmersHill's muscle modellow-Reynolds-number hydrodynamics

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Biomechanical solid mechanics (74L15) Kinematics of mechanisms and robots (70B15) Controllability (93B05) Biopropulsion in water and in air (76Z10)

Cites Work

• Applied functional analysis. Main principles and their applications
• Control and nonlinearity.
• On self-propulsion of micro-machines at low Reynolds number: Purcells three-link swimmer
• Periodic motions
• Optimal strokes for low Reynolds number swimmers: an example
• Numerical strategies for stroke optimization of axisymmetric microswimmers
• Optimally swimming Stokesian robots
• Computing optimal strokes for low Reynolds number swimmers

Cited In (5)

• On the self-propulsion of an \(N\)-sphere micro-robot
• A limiting model for a low Reynolds number swimmer with \(N\) passive elastic arms
• Parking 3-sphere swimmer I. energy minimizing strokes
• On the optimal control of rate-independent soft crawlers
• Optimization and small-amplitude analysis of Purcell's three-link microswimmer model

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