Minimal design of a synthetic cilium

Abstract

We study a slender filament beating in a viscous fluid with novel curvature-dependent bending stiffness. Our numerical and experimental investigations reveal that such differential stiffness can sustain planar bending waves far along flexible filaments, in stark contrast to the uniform-stiffness case which requires more sophisticated control. In particular, we establish basal actuation as a viable, parsimonious mechanism for generating high-amplitude planar bending waves. Moreover, the resulting beat patterns closely resemble the power-and-recovery strokes of propulsive biological filaments such as cilia, suggesting extensive applications in robotic and engineered systems.