This National Science Foundation Project Grant of $724,026 supports research at the University of Michigan from March 2023 through February 2028 under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041). The award will fund the creation of a dynamic modeling framework to advance understanding of bottlenose dolphin swimming mechanics. Researchers will gather kinematic data from electronic tags attached to free-swimming dolphins measuring movement and caloric expenditure. They will combine these data with mathematical modeling to generate new insights into dolphin locomotion and its energetic costs. This novel bio-logging approach using single-point kinematic measurements from untethered animals is expected to produce first-of-their-kind estimates of free swimming energetic expenditures. Outcomes aim to impact fields of biologging, biomechanics, and dynamical systems modeling.
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