A novel double-hull boat with biomimetic wire-driven flapping propulsors

This paper presents a novel double-hull boat with two wire-driven flapping propulsors. The boat comprises two identical hulls and a control center. Each hull is propelled by a biomimetic wire-driven flapping propulsor, which has seven joints, and is driven by one servo motor. Propulsion model of the boat is developed by integrating the reaction force during the flapping cycle. Motion of the boat is studied, including cruising and turning around. Two cruising modes and three turning modes are presented. Results show that the boat cruises forward steadily. In the tests, the maximum speed of the boat is 0.323 BL/s; the minimum turning radius of the boat is 0.517 BL; the maximum turning speed is 13.9°/s.