University of Bath PHD An analysis of the locomotory behaviour and functional morphology of errant polychaetes Hesselberg, Thomas Award date: 2006 Awarding institution: University of Bath Link to publication Alternative formats If you require this document in an alternative format, please contact: [email protected] General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 11. Oct. 2021 An analysis of the locomotory behaviour and functional morphology of errant polychaetes Thomas Hesselberg A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Bath Department of Mechanical Engineering June 2006 COPYRIGHT Attention is drawn to the fact that copyright of this thesis rests with its author. This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author. The thesis may be made available for consultation within the University library and may be photocopied or lent to other libraries for the purposes of consultation. 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Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 I 1 0 Alii Table of contents Acknowledgements v Declaration of work done in conjunction with others vii Summary viii 1 Introduction and background 1 1.1 Objectives and outline of the thesis ...........................................................2 1.2 An introduction to the hydrodynamics of aquatic locomotion...................5 1.3 Biomimetics - From biology to engineering...........................................14 1.3.1 Introduction................................................................................. 14 1.3.2 Composite materials.................................................................... 17 1.3.3 Biologically inspired robots........................................................20 1.3.4 The biomimetic approach............................................................23 1.4 The BIOLOCH project.............................................................................24 References........................................................................................................... 26 2 The biology of errant polychaetes in the family Nereididae 33 2.1 Classification and phylogeny...................................................................34 2.2 Morphology and anatomy........................................................................36 2.3 The nervous and sensory system..............................................................39 2.4 Ecology and behaviour.............................................................................44 2.5 Locomotion.............................................................................................. 48 References............................................................................................................54 3 A comparative study on the functional morphology of parapodia and setae in nereidids (Polychaeta: Nereididae) 59 3.1 Introduction.............................................................................................. 60 3.2 Materials and methods............................................................................. 64 3.2.1 Examined species........................................................................ 64 3.2.2 Scanning electron microscopy.....................................................64 3.2.3 Morphological parameters.......................................................... 65 3.2.3 Statistics.......................................................................................67 3.3 Results.......................................................................................................67 3.4 Discussion.................................................................................................73 References............................................................................................................77 4 A biomimetic approach to robot locomotion in unstructured and slippery environments 81 4.1 Introduction...............................................................................................82 4.2 Biological data..........................................................................................84 4.2.1 Materials and methods.................................................................84 4.2.2 Results..........................................................................................86 4.3 Modelling parapodium and setae............................................................. 88 4.3.1 Modelling biological shapes........................................................88 4.3.2 Modelling polychaete gaits..........................................................90 4.4 Robotic prototype......................................................................................91 4.4.1 Fabrication of components...........................................................91 4.4.2 Computer interface.......................................................................92 4.4.3 Measurement system....................................................................93 4.5 Experiments...............................................................................................94 4.5.1 Materials and methods.................................................................94 4.5.2 Results.......................................................................................... 96 4.6 Discussion.................................................................................................98 4.7 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 102 References..........................................................................................................104 5 The function of parapodial setae in an errant polychaete moving on two different substrates 107 5.1 Introduction............................................................................................. 108 5.2 Materials and methods............................................................................I ll 5.2.1 Crawling and swimming 111 5.2.2 Lateral view ................................................................................115 5.2.3 Statistics.....................................................................................116 5.3 Results....................................................................................................117 5.3.1 Crawling.....................................................................................117 5.3.2 Swimming..................................................................................119 5.3.3 Lateral view................................................................................120 5.4 Discussion..............................................................................................121 References......................................................................................................... 125 6 Continuous jet-like propulsion in an errant polychaete 129 6.1 Introduction............................................................................................130 6.2 Materials and methods...........................................................................133 6.2.1 Kinematics and flow visualisation............................................ 133 6.2.2 Analysis and kinematic parameters........................................... 134 6.2.3 Lateral view ................................................................................137 6.2.4 Statistics..................................................................................... 138 6.3 Results.................................................................................................... 138 6.3.1 Kinematics..................................................................................138 6.3.2 Flow visualisation......................................................................140 6.3.3 Lateral view ................................................................................146 6.4 Discussion..............................................................................................147