The Effectiveness of Resistive Force Theory in Granular Locomotion

Zhang, Tingnan; Goldman, Daniel I.

Title:

The Effectiveness of Resistive Force Theory in Granular Locomotion

dc.contributor.author	Zhang, Tingnan
dc.contributor.author	Goldman, Daniel I.
dc.contributor.corporatename	Georgia Institute of Technology. School of Physics	en_US
dc.contributor.corporatename	Georgia Institute of Technology. Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines	en_US
dc.date.accessioned	2015-05-08T15:58:19Z
dc.date.available	2015-05-08T15:58:19Z
dc.date.issued	2014
dc.description	© 2014 AIP Publishing LLC	en_US
dc.description	This paper was presented as an invited talk at the 66th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, 24–26 November 2013, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
dc.description	DOI: 10.1063/1.4898629
dc.description.abstract	Resistive force theory (RFT) is often used to analyze the movement of microscopic organisms swimming in fluids. In RFT, a body is partitioned into infinitesimal segments, each of which generates thrust and experiences drag. Linear superposition of forces from elements over the body allows prediction of swimming velocities and efficiencies. We show that RFT quantitatively describes the movement of animals and robots that move on and within dry granular media (GM), collections of particles that display solid, fluid, and gas-like features. RFT works well when the GM is slightly polydisperse, and in the “frictional fluid” regime such that frictional forces dominate material inertial forces, and when locomotion can be approximated as confined to a plane. Within a given plane (horizontal or vertical) relationships that govern the force versus orientation of an elemental intruder are functionally independent of the granular medium. We use the RFT to explain features of locomotion on and within granular media including kinematic and muscle activation patterns during sand-swimming by a sandfish lizard and a shovel-nosed snake, optimal movement patterns of a Purcell 3-link sand-swimming robot revealed by a geometric mechanics approach, and legged locomotion of small robots on the surface of GM. We close by discussing situations to which granular RFT has not yet been applied (such as inclined granular surfaces), and the advances in the physics of granular media needed to apply RFT in such situations.	en_US
dc.embargo.terms	null	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Zhang, T. and Goldman, D. I. (2014). “The Effectiveness of Resistive Force Theory in Granular Locomotion”. Physics of Fluids, Vol. 26, 101308 (2014). http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4898629	en_US
dc.identifier.doi	10.1063/1.4898629
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/1853/53340
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US
dc.publisher	Georgia Institute of Technology	en_US
dc.publisher.original	American Institute of Physics
dc.subject	Frictional fluid	en_US
dc.subject	Frictional forces	en_US
dc.subject	Granular media	en_US
dc.subject	Inertial forces	en_US
dc.subject	Resistive force theory	en_US
dc.title	The Effectiveness of Resistive Force Theory in Granular Locomotion	en_US
dc.type	Text
dc.type.genre	Article
dspace.entity.type	Publication
local.contributor.author	Goldman, Daniel I.
local.contributor.corporatename	College of Sciences
local.contributor.corporatename	School of Physics
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