Bioinspired Artificial Fish Developed by AVID

AVID is pleased to announce the successful demonstration of a bioinspired artificial fish constructed in partnership with Drs. Mike Philen and Wayne Neu of Virginia Tech. The 30-inch long prototype fish used a silicone hull cast in the shape of a striped bass. Flexible matrix composite hydraulic actuators developed by Dr. Philen acted as muscles and enabled the fish to swim using a natural gait at 3 feet per second.

Prior to construction, AVID performed unsteady hydrodynamic analyses to evaluate swimming strokes and quasi-steady analyses to evaluate stability using its Aerodynamic Tools: AVID PAGE for geometry generation and AVID Vorview for analyses.

AVID’s work was sponsored by the Office of Naval Research as a Phase I STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) program.