Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

SAGETRACK

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (OnlineFirst PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
1045389X06063464v1
18/2/111    most recent
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Chan, B.
Right arrow Articles by Hosoi, A. E.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Article

Mechanical Devices for Snail-like Locomotion

Brian Chan, Susan Ji, Catherine Koveal, A. E. Hosoi*

Hatsopolous Microfluids Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.


  Abstract

We have constructed two mechanical snails, Robosnail 1 and Robosnail 2, inspired by the propulsion mechanisms of live gastropods. Each uses a different mechanical strategy to move on a thin layer of viscous fluid. Robosnail 1 uses a flexible flapping sheet to generate lubrication pressures in a viscous Newtonian fluid which in turn propels the snail. Robosnail 2 uses a compressible sliding sheet on a layer of Laponite, a non-Newtonian, finite-yield stress fluid.

Key Words: fluids, gastropod, snails, locomotion, thin film, lubrication

First published on May 17, 2006, doi:10.1177/1045389X06063464

Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures 2007;18:111.

A more recent version of this article appeared on February 1, 2007

Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?