Utilization of Function Generation Synthesis on Biomimetics: A Case Study on Moray Eel Double Jaw Design

Abstract

Throughout history humans have observed living or non-living things in nature and then imitated them in relation to these observations. This is due to the fact that the energy found in nature is generally consumed at an optimal level in order for it to endure. Biomimetic inspiration in many designs and applications is widely displayed including within the field of engineering. In this paper we were inspired by the double set of jaws found in the moray eel which gives this fish a huge advantage while hunting with a mobile pharyngeal jaw that works together with its oral jaw in order to overcome ineffective suction capabilities. A procedure that mimics the hunting motion of the moray eel was utilized by considering the overall movement as a single degree of freedom with multiple outputs on account of the repeating motion that is required during hunting. This procedure includes structural and dimensioning synthesis wherein the latter was utilized with analytic kinematic synthesis for each linkage transfer. The flexibilities in parameters were taken into account with a novel multiple iterative kinematic synthesis algorithm that resulted in various mechanisms with the same purpose. Among the excessive number of resultant mechanisms the optimization was carried out by considering the highest torque transmission ratio at critical timings that were specified as bio-constraints. In the end the kinematic movement validation was utilized. © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.