What is it about?
Have you ever wondered how stingrays glide so effortlessly through the water? This study explores how their unique swimming motion—flapping their fins with quicker downstrokes—helps them move efficiently. Researchers used a computer model to break down these movements into different wave patterns, like mixing simple rhythms to create more complex motion. By testing various combinations, they found that shorter downstrokes improve both thrust and efficiency, just like in nature. These insights could help design better underwater vehicles and robots that move smoothly and use less energy, inspired by stingray swimming.
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Photo by Ruben Ortega on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Understanding how stingrays swim efficiently can help us design better underwater vehicles and robots. Many aquatic machines struggle to balance speed and energy use, but nature has already solved this problem. By studying how different movement patterns affect propulsion, this research provides new insights for building more efficient, agile and environmentally friendly underwater technology. These findings could improve ocean exploration, marine conservation and even underwater transportation by making vehicles that move more smoothly—just like stingrays do in nature.
Perspectives
Nature has spent millions of years perfecting efficient movement and stingrays are a great example of that. This research highlights how we can learn from these natural swimmers to improve human-made technology. By understanding how different movement patterns affect propulsion, we can design underwater vehicles that move more smoothly and use energy more wisely. It’s exciting to think that by studying the way animals swim, we are taking steps toward smarter, more adaptable aquatic robots. In the future, these insights could help us explore the ocean more efficiently and even develop new ways to navigate underwater environments.
Dr Bluest Lan
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Balancing thrust and energy efficiency: Optimized asymmetric flapping inspired by batoid locomotion, Physics of Fluids, March 2025, American Institute of Physics,
DOI: 10.1063/5.0253805.
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