Facilities

The Biomimetics Laboratory is located in 09.EG.012.

The eastern end of the room is a design centre with PCs, whiteboards, a beamer and a large boardroom table. Component catalogues and online databases provide students with information on available CotS parts to simplify their designs. The western end of the lab is a machine shop with lathe, mill, and smaller machine tools to build the components they design. A test basin at the eastern end of the lab proper provides a place to test underwater robots and boats before they are released into the Spoy Canal just outside the laboratory's doors.

The middle of the room has been divided up with flexible bench space. Currently the benches are arranged as workstations, each dedicated to a particular robot or set of projects. Shelves above the workbenches house the robot shells, while drawers and cabinets below the benches are available for storing parts out of harm's way.

The southern side of the lab is given over to the group's bionics fluid dynamics research. A large recirculating flow tunnel traverses a custom built darkroom with laser digital particle image velocimetry equipment. A wet room just off the research area is available for specific research requirements. 

Large open shelves are arranged around and over the flume and darkroom for large equipment storage. Further storage is found on a mezzanine above the design centre.

The lab currently owns two water tunnels. The smaller of the two has a working area approximately 30cm x 30cm x 100cm, and can generate laminar flow to about 0.3m/s, and turbulent flow up to about 1m/s.

The larger tunnel has a working area approximately 40cm x 40cm x 200cm, and has been designed to generate laminar flow up to 0.5m/s, with turbulent flow up to 2m/s. The tunnel can be run in either open-top or closed configuration (to allow oxygen consumption measurements, for example).

Instrumentation available for experiments in the tunnels include force platforms, flow meters, pressure transducers, and a stereo DPIV system, with high-power laser and waterproof cameras. Several linear motors are also available.

In addition to the laboratory facilities, the Biomimetics Laboratory also owns and operates a 5m rigid hull inflatable boat, a 4m motorsailer trimaran, and a 5m robotic boat (autonomous surface vehicle), which are stored in a boathouse at the north end of campus. Finally, the Spoy Canal is available as a straight-line testing basin, 2.8m deep, 20m wide and 400m long through the campus, then 5 nautical miles reasonably straight out to the locks at the River Rhine.