This work assesses the hydrodynamic efficiency of Underwater Unmanned Vehicles (UUVs) equipped with soft morphing wings compared to conventional rigid wings. Unlike rigid wings, deformable counterparts can alter their aerodynamic properties on demand. Improvements in hydrodynamic efficiency extend a UUV's operational range and may determine mission feasibility. Structural and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were conducted for both a soft morphing wing and a UUV incorporating it. The results show that a UUV employing soft wings achieves 9.75 percent higher overall efficiency than an equivalent vehicle with traditional rigid wings. These findings confirm the potential of soft robotics to enhance underwater vehicle performance, particularly in applications requiring pressure-agnostic operation.

翻译：本研究评估了配备软体变形翼与采用传统刚性翼的无人水下航行器（UUV）的水动力效率。与刚性翼不同，可变形翼能够按需改变其气动特性。水动力效率的提升可延长UUV的作业航程，并可能决定任务可行性。本研究对软体变形翼及其集成的UUV分别进行了结构动力学与计算流体动力学（CFD）仿真。结果表明，采用软体翼的UUV整体效率比采用传统刚性翼的同类航行器高出9.75%。这些发现证实了软体机器人技术在提升水下航行器性能方面的潜力，特别是在需要压力无关性操作的应用中。