[5] Ecologically and economically important crustaceans such as copepods, krill, shrimp, crayfish, and lobsters[9][10][11][12] use metachronal swimming for locomotion.
A study by Campos et al.[3] showed that the power stroke of the mantis shrimp (Odontodactylus havanensis) is metachronal, creating a back-to-front wave motion.
[4] In this study by van Duren and Videler, it was observed that during foraging, copepods metachronally beat their first three mouth appendages (antennae, mandibular palps and maxillules) creating backward motion of water.
During escape, their mouth appendages stop moving and swimming legs beat in a very fast metachronal rhythm, accelerating a jet of water backwards.
Slow-motion video by Jiang and Kiorboe[24] reveals the metachronal beating of legs of cyclopoid copepod Oithona davisae during jumping.
[28] It has also been shown that krill produce lift to balance the force acting on them as a result of negative buoyancy, allowing them to swim forward while maintaining their position in the water column.
[29] Metachronal swimmers have inspired solutions for underwater locomotion in the intermediate Reynolds number regime due to their high maneuverability.
Robotic models allow for parameter variations that live organisms don't, which gives us the opportunity to explore solutions outside of nature imposed boundaries.
A shrimp-inspired metachronal robot can be used to study and understand the flexural asymmetry of shrimp pleopods, and their influence on efficiency and propulsion.