Lagrangian mechanics and carangiform locomotion

We describe the interaction of a rigid body and its incompressible fluid environment with reduced Euler-Lagrange equations on the appropriate Cartesian product manifold. We propose a modification to the planar form of these equations to accomodate control inputs consistent with a model for carangiform swimming. Initial Lie algebraic analysis of the resulting control system suggests its usefulness in predicting efficacious gaits for piscimimetic robots. Copyright (C) 1998 IFAC.