Dynamical Systems Lab

Horace Walcott and Brian Lam

This week was spent getting the last finishing touches on the experimental setup before conducting actual experiments. Our molds were finalized and 3D printed after several iterations, and endoskeletons were cut from thin sheets of metal in order to fit them. The molds are shown in Figure 1. Several tests of the molds were done using silicon gel to ensure that they would dry properly. Tiny magnets were also arranged in the shape of the replica tail to be embedded into the molded replica (See Figure 2). The flow of water in the tube has been recorded and analyzed, but different bluff bodies were 3D printed if necessary. Figure 3 shows the servo setup with the Arduino microcontroller. The motion of the servo motor was also captured on video using a replica endoskeleton and was graphed using ProAnalyst. Lastly, the materials that were ordered finally arrived.

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Figure 1

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Figure 2

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Figure 3