When it comes to swimming and maneuvering performance, fish can swim circles around underwater vehicles. In this talk, I will discuss the results of three studies related to fish propulsion: the kinematics and resulting wake structure during 'C'-start maneuvers of live fish; the dynamics of carangiform-type swimming of both live fish and biomimetic fish-like robots; and an analysis of the wake behind a swimming fish using singular value decomposition.

Experimental results from dye visualization and particle image velocimetry will be discussed, using simple physical models to represent the complex vortical wake structures generated during swimming and maneuvering. These simple models allow one to quantify key performance metrics of swimming robots, such as thrust production and swimming efficiency.

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