Omnidirectional propulsion in a metachronal swimmer
Fig 5
Ctenophore reduced-order modeling.
(A) Lateral view of a ctenophore; red dots mark the position of the ctenes that circumscribe its body in eight rows. (B) Real ctene tip trajectory from a tracked time series of ctene kinematics (gray lines, spaced equally in time). (C) Ctenophore modeled as a spheroidal body; red dots indicate the application point for each modeled (time-varying) ctene propulsion force. (D) Simplified elliptical trajectory for a modeled ctene, which is a flat plate with time-varying length. The plate oscillates parallel to a plane tangent to the curved surface of the modeled body (kλ, tangential angle to the body surface). The time-varying tip position (xA, yA) is prescribed as a function of the five ctene beating control parameters: f, Φ, l, Sa, and Ta (see S1 Video).