Surfing vortex rings for energy-efficient propulsion

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates an autonomous underwater robot that exploits vortex rings for energy-efficient propulsion, significantly reducing energy consumption by surfing on vortex flows using onboard inertial sensing.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel autonomous strategy for utilizing vortex rings for propulsion, combining inertial sensing and flow analysis to achieve energy savings in underwater navigation.

Findings

Robot achieved five-fold reduction in energy use

IMU sensing correlates with flow pressure gradients

Analysis of vortex entrainment and sensitivity to initial conditions

Abstract

Leveraging background fluid flows for propulsion has the potential to enhance the range and speed of autonomous aerial and underwater vehicles. In this work, we demonstrate experimentally a fully autonomous strategy for exploiting vortex rings for energy-efficient propulsion. First, an underwater robot used an onboard inertial measurement unit (IMU) to sense the motion induced by the passage of a vortex ring generated by a thruster in a 13,000-liter water tank. In response to the sensed acceleration, an impulsive maneuver entrained the robot into the material boundary of the vortex ring. After entrainment, the robot was propelled across the tank without expending additional energy or control effort. By advecting with the vortex ring, the robot achieved a near five-fold reduction in the energy required to traverse the tank. Using the controlled finite-time Lyapunov exponent field and corresponding Lagrangian coherent structures, we analyze and explain the initial entrainment process and the sensitivity to the starting time and position of the surfing maneuver. Additionally, linear acceleration as sensed by the onboard IMU was found to correspond with the pressure gradient of the background flow, and rotational acceleration is suggested as a method for measuring the vorticity of the vortex ring. This study serves as a proof-of-concept demonstration of the potential for onboard inertial measurements to enable efficient interaction with background fluid flows.