Shape Memory Alloy Wire Actuated Flexible Biomimetic Fin for Quiet Underwater Propulsion

Wang, Zhenlong

doi:10.3901/jme.2009.02.126

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The pectoral fin oscillation of rays can be seen as a coupling motion of span-wise flapping and chord-wise pitching, driven and conducted by the muscles and cartilages of the highly flexible fin organism [16,17]. The high control freedom of the pectoral fins and relatively better payload capacity of rays have drawn interest from many researchers in the field of bionic underwater robots [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. Lots of related research has been made trying to achieve the performance of the original creatures, but due to the volume/weight of the actuators, structural and control complexity or other limitations, the existing prototypes were either oversimplified for engineering feasibility and cannot reproduce the flexible characteristics of the real pectoral fins [19], or trying new actuating methods with fully soft materials at the cost of low speed and payload capacity [22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The high control freedom of the pectoral fins and relatively better payload capacity of rays have drawn interest from many researchers in the field of bionic underwater robots [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. Lots of related research has been made trying to achieve the performance of the original creatures, but due to the volume/weight of the actuators, structural and control complexity or other limitations, the existing prototypes were either oversimplified for engineering feasibility and cannot reproduce the flexible characteristics of the real pectoral fins [19], or trying new actuating methods with fully soft materials at the cost of low speed and payload capacity [22]. As the essential part of the whole bionic system, the structure of the pectoral fins on existing ray-inspired robotic fish can be divided into three types:…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most of them consist of a flexible rod in the leading edge as skeleton (calcified cartilages) and a 2D membrane connected to the rod as fin surface. Such structures are either driven by motors or servos connected to the front rod [20,21] or smart actuators as the front rod [22,23]. Both can only perform the span-wise flapping motion and have to rely on the passive deformation of the soft fin membrane to form chord-wise pitching motion, leading to relatively poor maneuverability since the fin has a single degree of freedom that only generates forward thrust.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Design and Hydrodynamic Experiment Research on Novel Biomimetic Pectoral Fins of a Ray-Inspired Robotic Fish

Chen

Cai

et al. 2022

Machines

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Bionic propulsion has certain advantages over traditional propellers. Much research on pectoral fins as bionic propellers for ray-inspired robots has been made, but rarely did they compare the hydrodynamic performance of different fins on the same platform to find out optimal balance. In this paper, the existing prototypes are categorized into three structure types, and a new bionic pectoral fin module used on a ray-inspired robotic fish was presented, together with a novel 2-DOF spatial parallel mechanism as the bionic propeller. Motion analysis of the mechanism agreed well with the pectoral fin kinematic model, providing a reliable basis to test different types of fins. Design and fabrication of the new bionic fin module as well as two traditional ones are also explained. Hydrodynamic experiment was conducted to study the differences between each fin type under various working conditions. Results indicate that the thrust generated by the fin oscillation is closely related to four parameters (amplitude, frequency, phase difference, and flow velocity), and there are optimal value ranges for better propelling performance when the frequency is around 0.5 Hz and phase difference is near 30°. Thanks to better profile preservation and hydro force interaction, the newly proposed pectoral fins had higher performance than the traditional ones in terms of thrust generation and controllability when the amplitude is higher than 30° and frequency is over 0.3 Hz. An average thrust of 2.98 N was recorded for the new fin module at the max amplitude of 60°, 11.6% and 16.4% higher than the other two comparative test groups, respectively.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Design and Hydrodynamic Experiment Research on Novel Biomimetic Pectoral Fins of a Ray-Inspired Robotic Fish

Chen

Cai

et al. 2022

Machines

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Design and Experimental Research on a Bionic Robot Fish with Tri-Dimensional Soft Pectoral Fins Inspired by Cownose Ray

Chen

Cai

et al. 2022

JMSE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Bionic propulsion has advantages over traditional blade propellers, such as efficiency and noise control. Existing research on ray-inspired robot fish has mainly focused on a single type of pectoral fin as bionic propeller, which only performed well in terms of pure speed or maneuverability. Rarely has the performance of different fin types been compared on the same platform to find an optimal solution. In this paper, a modularized robot fish with high-fidelity biomimetic pectoral fins and novel multi-DOF propelling mechanism is presented. A kinematic model of the pectoral fin based on motion analysis of a cownose ray is introduced as guidance for the propelling mechanism design. A high-fidelity parametric geo-model is established and evaluated based on statistical data. The design and fabrication process of the 3D soft bionic fins, as well as the robot platform, is also elaborated. Through experiments comparing the performance of different fin types constructed with different materials and approaches, it was found that the new soft fins made of silicon rubber have better performance than traditional fins constructed with a flexible inner skeleton and a permeable outer skin as a result of better 3D profile preservation and hydrodynamic force interaction. The robot ray prototype also acquires a better combination of high speed and maneuverability compared to results of previous research.

show abstract

Shape Memory Alloy Wire Actuated Flexible Biomimetic Fin for Quiet Underwater Propulsion

Cited by 2 publications

References 6 publications

Design and Hydrodynamic Experiment Research on Novel Biomimetic Pectoral Fins of a Ray-Inspired Robotic Fish

Design and Hydrodynamic Experiment Research on Novel Biomimetic Pectoral Fins of a Ray-Inspired Robotic Fish

Design and Experimental Research on a Bionic Robot Fish with Tri-Dimensional Soft Pectoral Fins Inspired by Cownose Ray

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About