Bioinspiration review of Aquatic Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (AquaUAV)

Abstract

The performance of Aquatic Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (AquaUAV) has always been limited so far and far from practical applications, due to insufficient propulsion, large-resistance structure etc. Aerial-aquatic amphibians in nature may facilitate the development of AquaUAV since their excellent amphibious locomotion capabilities evolved under long-term natural selection. This article will take four typical aerial-aquatic amphibians as representatives, i.e., gannet, cormorant, flying fish and flying squid. We summarized the multi-mode locomotion process of common aerial-aquatic amphibians and the evolutionary trade-offs they have made to adapt to amphibious environments. The four typical propulsion mechanisms were investigated, which may further inspire the propulsion design of the AquaUAV. And their morphological models could guide the layout optimization. Finally, we reviewed the state of art in AquaUAV to validate the potential value of our bioinspiration, and discussed the future prospects.

Keywords

• Aerial-aquatic amphibians
• Multi-mode locomotion trade-offs
• Propulsion mechanism
• Morphological design