Large deflection analysis of a biomimetic lobster robot antenna due to contact and flow

Lobsters use their antennae to navigate among obstacles along the ocean flo or. Effective ambulation requires that the lobster or a biomimetic lobster robot whose behavior is patterned after a real lobster must distinguish bet ween antenna bending due to contact and bending due to flow. The analysis p resented here shows that the key feature appears to be the taper of the ant ennae. The curvature of a tapered antenna due to an end-load is nearly cons tant whereas the curvature distribution due to flow is nearly a quadratic f unction of the arc-length measured from the tip of the antenna.