Energy harvesting by an intelligent body from turbulence

Turbulence is a ubiquitous phenomenon that is encountered in nature ranging from astrophysical to biophysical scales. Still, it is widely appreciated as one of the key unsolved problems in modern physics and engineering. Despite nearly all fluid flows being turbulent, the energy in turbulence has not been utilized to its full potential today. Energy harvesting from turbulence has been challenging due to the inability to study the process accurately since turbulence has an unpredictable and disordered spatiotemporal structure. On the other hand, we know that birds frequently use turbulent energy in the atmosphere to subsidize soaring flight. Fish also can take advantage of the flow irregularity to power their rotation or directional propulsion. An interesting question is whether we can exploit this fluid erratic motion by teaching a body how to react in a smart way to generate energy. Here we report numerical and analytical evidence on how the rotational dynamics of a neutrally buoyant body can conspire to allow the harvesting of energy from the turbulent fluid motion efficiently. We suggest addressing this problem with machine learning to find an optimal way of controlling the body so that it can tow itself for long distances and harvest energy.