Marangoni propulsion is well-known aquatic locomotion exhibited by some aquatic insects. After secreting chemicals to reduce the surface tension nearby, they are rapidly propelled by the force originated from the surface tension gradient. Inspired by their locomotion, a water surface skimming device was implemented in this work. It could obtain thrust by periodically dripping alcohol behind to utilize Marangoni effect. In particular, this work firstly proposed a passively triggerable vessel to explore a new way of initiating Marangoni propulsion, which does not require electric power to store and release alcohol fuel. From the experimental analysis, it was found that using a Teflon tube not only facilitated periodic dripping, but it also caused the dripping period and the number of droplets become less sensible to the tilting angle of the vessel. In addition, a new model to calculate the supporting force of a footpad was proposed, and the modeling error of a circular and an elliptical footpad was 3.54% and 4.36%, respectively. Those footpads were also extruded with keel to demonstrate passive directional motion without an active controller, which exhibited 30.9 mm of lateral deviation per 1 m of forward movement. The entire device weight was 11 g, and the estimated maximum moving distance was 9 m.

中文翻译：

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马兰戈尼效应推动的龙骨挤压脚垫在水面上的定向运动

Marangoni 推进是一些水生昆虫展示的众所周知的水生运动。在分泌化学物质以降低附近的表面张力后，它们被源自表面张力梯度的力迅速推动。受他们运动的启发，在这项工作中实施了水面撇油装置。它可以通过定期向后滴酒精来获得推力，以利用马兰戈尼效应。特别是，这项工作首次提出了一种被动触发的船舶，探索了一种启动马兰戈尼推进的新方法，它不需要电力来储存和释放酒精燃料。从实验分析发现，使用聚四氟乙烯管不仅有利于周期性滴液，而且还会导致滴液周期和液滴数量对容器倾斜角度的敏感性降低。此外，提出了一种计算脚垫支撑力的新模型，圆形和椭圆形脚垫的建模误差分别为3.54%和4.36%。这些脚垫也用龙骨挤压，以展示没有主动控制器的被动定向运动，每 1 m 向前运动表现出 30.9 mm 的横向偏差。整个设备重量为 11 g，估计最大移动距离为 9 m。