Leveraging three-dimensionality for navigation in bluff-body wakes

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Godavarthi, Vedasri, Krishna, Kartik, Brunton, Steven L., Taira, Kunihiko
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Godavarthi, Vedasri
Krishna, Kartik
Brunton, Steven L.
Taira, Kunihiko
author_facet Godavarthi, Vedasri
Krishna, Kartik
Brunton, Steven L.
Taira, Kunihiko
contents Biological flyers and swimmers navigate in unsteady wake flows using limited sensory abilities and actuation energies. Understanding how vortical structures can be leveraged for energy-efficient navigation in unsteady flows is beneficial in developing autonomous navigation for small-scale aerial and marine vehicles. Such vehicles are typically operated with constrained onboard actuation and sensing capabilities, making energy-efficient trajectory planning critically important. This study finds that trajectory planners can leverage three-dimensionality appearing in a complex unsteady wake for efficient navigation using limited flowfield information. This is revealed with comprehensive investigations by finite-horizon model-predictive control for trajectory planning of a swimmer behind a cylinder wake at Re=300. The navigation performance of three-dimensional (3D) cases is compared to scenarios in a two-dimensional (2D) wake. The underactuated swimmer is able to reach the target by leveraging the background flow when the prediction horizon exceeds one-tenth of the wake-shedding period, demonstrating that navigation is feasible with limited information about the flowfield. Further, we identify that the swimmer can leverage the secondary transverse vortical structures to reach the target faster than is achievable navigating in a 2D wake.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_14160
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Leveraging three-dimensionality for navigation in bluff-body wakes
Godavarthi, Vedasri
Krishna, Kartik
Brunton, Steven L.
Taira, Kunihiko
Fluid Dynamics
Biological flyers and swimmers navigate in unsteady wake flows using limited sensory abilities and actuation energies. Understanding how vortical structures can be leveraged for energy-efficient navigation in unsteady flows is beneficial in developing autonomous navigation for small-scale aerial and marine vehicles. Such vehicles are typically operated with constrained onboard actuation and sensing capabilities, making energy-efficient trajectory planning critically important. This study finds that trajectory planners can leverage three-dimensionality appearing in a complex unsteady wake for efficient navigation using limited flowfield information. This is revealed with comprehensive investigations by finite-horizon model-predictive control for trajectory planning of a swimmer behind a cylinder wake at Re=300. The navigation performance of three-dimensional (3D) cases is compared to scenarios in a two-dimensional (2D) wake. The underactuated swimmer is able to reach the target by leveraging the background flow when the prediction horizon exceeds one-tenth of the wake-shedding period, demonstrating that navigation is feasible with limited information about the flowfield. Further, we identify that the swimmer can leverage the secondary transverse vortical structures to reach the target faster than is achievable navigating in a 2D wake.
title Leveraging three-dimensionality for navigation in bluff-body wakes
topic Fluid Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.14160