Size-scaling limits of impulsive elastic energy release from a resilin-like elastomer

TL;DR

This study investigates how the size of resilin-like elastomer bands affects their elastic energy release and motion, revealing size-independent velocities but size-dependent accelerations and durations, with implications for biological and engineered systems.

Contribution

It establishes size-scaling relationships for elastic energy release in resilin-like elastomers, highlighting differences between biological and engineered devices and suggesting design improvements.

Findings

Maximum velocity is size-scale independent.

Smaller bands have larger accelerations.

Engineered devices do not follow natural size-scaling laws.

Abstract

Elastically-driven motion has been used as a strategy to achieve high speeds in small organisms and engineered micro-robotic devices. We examine the size-scaling relations determining the limit of elastic energy release from elastomer bands with mechanical properties similar to the biological protein resilin. The maximum center-of-mass velocity of the elastomer bands was found to be size-scale independent, while smaller bands demonstrated larger accelerations and shorter durations of elastic energy release. Scaling relationships determined from these measurements are consistent with the performance of small organisms which utilize elastic elements to power motion. Engineered devices found in the literature do not follow the same size-scaling relationships, which suggests an opportunity for improved design of engineered devices.