Advances and Trends of Bionic Underwater Propulsors

In recent twenty years, tens of the bionic underwater prototype propulsors which imitate aquatic animals have been invented. The bionic principles hand classification of bionic propulsors were presented firstly. The main advance of the bionic propulsors in the world has been listed in table form. Then the bottlenecks which include low efficiency and massive mechanism, hard-shelled reverse control method and exterior hydro-dynamic analysis are discussed. The future trends of the bionic underwater propulsors are forecasted. The main potential breakthroughs include innovative smart actuators and bionic neural control methods.