Development of 2D maneuverable robotic fish propelled by multiple ionic polymer-metal composite artificial fins

Abstract

Due to their high propulsion efficiency, stealthiness, and compact size, bio-inspired robotic fish are promising underwater vehicles that can carry out remote sensing missions in intelligence collection, environmental monitoring, and fishing agriculture. In this paper, a two-dimensional (2D), maneuverable, bio-inspired robotic fish propelled by multiple ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) artificial fins is developed. The robot utilizes two pectoral fins for steering and one caudal fin for main propulsion. IPMC artificial muscles are used as actuators in all fins. These IPMC fins are designed and fabricated. An on-board micro-controller with a lithium ion battery and XBee communication device is developed for the robotic fish. Finally, a free-swimming robotic fish is assembled and tested. In its first demonstration of free swimming, the forward-swimming speed reached 0.5 cm/sec, and both the left-turning and right-turning speeds reached up to 1.5 rad/sec. Experimental results have verified the 2D maneuvering capability of robotic fish through multiple-fin propulsion.978-1-4673-9675-2/15/$31.00 © 2015 IEEE

Untethered soft robotics

“…2h). Well-suited for underwater applications, IPMCs were also recently applied to an untethered, steerable fish 62 .…”

“…Many other untethered soft robots take advantage of marine environments to circumvent static friction and offload the mass of their auxiliary components 57,62,119,120 , thereby improving the system efficiency 121 . These principles allowed the autonomous soft robotic fish developed by Marchese et al to benefit from its large size and incorporate hydraulic actuators and power within its body cavity 119,120 (Fig.…”

Robotic Fish Propelled by a Servo Motor and Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite Hybrid Tail

“…In step 1, the fabrication steps reported in Ref. [13] were followed to make IPMC soft actuator. In this section, the rest three fabrication steps will be introduced.…”

“…Epps et al [5] have also been studying the swimming performance of biomimiccompliant robotic fish. Since various real-life environmental tasks require different characteristics, many groups have developed different types of robotic fish [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. To achieve high agility in water, some robotic fish, including soft-body and multiple-link tails [14][15][16][17], use multiple actuators or a compliant actuation mechanism to make the body-tail more flexible.…”

“…When voltage is applied to the IPMC, the transportation of hydrated cations and water molecules occurs within the membrane, and the associated electrostatic interactions lead to a bending motion. IPMC has been used for robotic fish by many research groups [13]. In this paper, IPMC is used only in the second joint of the hybrid tail.…”