Thrust force characterization of free-swimming soft robotic jellyfish

Frame, Jennifer; Lopez, Nick; Curet, Oscar; Engeberg, Erik D.

doi:10.1088/1748-3190/aadcb3

Cited by 111 publications

(85 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Recently, an untethered jellyfish-inspired soft robot was developed using hydraulic actuators (Frame et al, 2018). One challenge with fluidic actuators is that they necessitate either a pump or piston for pressurizing the chambers, which often draw a considerable amount of power, are most efficient when driven continuously instead of in intermittent pulses, and are made from rigid materials.…”

Section: Actuation For Jellyfish-inspired Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Jellyfish-Inspired Soft Robot Driven by Fluid Electrode Dielectric Organic Robotic Actuators

Christianson

Bayag

et al. 2019

Front. Robot. AI

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Robots for underwater exploration are typically comprised of rigid materials and driven by propellers or jet thrusters, which consume a significant amount of power. Large power consumption necessitates a sizeable battery, which limits the ability to design a small robot. Propellers and jet thrusters generate considerable noise and vibration, which is counterproductive when studying acoustic signals or studying timid species. Bioinspired soft robots provide an approach for underwater exploration in which the robots are comprised of compliant materials that can better adapt to uncertain environments and take advantage of design elements that have been optimized in nature. In previous work, we demonstrated that frameless DEAs could use fluid electrodes to apply a voltage to the film and that effective locomotion in an eel-inspired robot could be achieved without the need for a rigid frame. However, the robot required an off-board power supply and a non-trivial control signal to achieve propulsion. To develop an untethered soft swimming robot powered by DEAs, we drew inspiration from the jellyfish and attached a ring of frameless DEAs to an inextensible layer to generate a unimorph structure that curves toward the passive side to generate power stroke, and efficiently recovers the original configuration as the robot coasts. This swimming strategy simplified the control system and allowed us to develop a soft robot capable of untethered swimming at an average speed of 3.2 mm/s and a cost of transport of 35. This work demonstrates the feasibility of using DEAs with fluid electrodes for low power, silent operation in underwater environments.

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Section: Actuation For Jellyfish-inspired Robotsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Jellyfish-Inspired Soft Robot Driven by Fluid Electrode Dielectric Organic Robotic Actuators

Christianson

Bayag

et al. 2019

Front. Robot. AI

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“…Untethered miniature swimming robots 1–8 are indispensable in biomedical and environmental monitoring and remediation applications. Although existing miniature swimming robots have shown interesting mobility, their advanced functionalities, such as object manipulation ability, significantly decrease as the robot size becomes smaller, due to limitations of their miniaturized on-board components 9 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-functional soft-bodied jellyfish-like swimming

et al. 2019

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The functionalities of the untethered miniature swimming robots significantly decrease as the robot size becomes smaller, due to limitations of feasible miniaturized on-board components. Here we propose an untethered jellyfish-inspired soft millirobot that could realize multiple functionalities in moderate Reynolds number by producing diverse controlled fluidic flows around its body using its magnetic composite elastomer lappets, which are actuated by an external oscillating magnetic field. We particularly investigate the interaction between the robot’s soft body and incurred fluidic flows due to the robot’s body motion, and utilize such physical interaction to achieve different predation-inspired object manipulation tasks. The proposed lappet kinematics can inspire other existing jellyfish-like robots to achieve similar functionalities at the same length and time scale. Moreover, the robotic platform could be used to study the impacts of the morphology and kinematics changing in ephyra jellyfish.

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“…Examples of bioinspired aquatic robots include robotic fish [16][17][18], manta rays [19][20][21], sea stars [22,23], and jellyfish [24][25][26][27][28][29], including systems that have been deployed in real-world environments [16,24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Field testing of biohybrid robotic jellyfish to demonstrate enhanced swimming speeds

Townsend

Costello

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Biohybrid robotic designs incorporating live animals and self-contained microelectronic systems can leverage the animals’ own metabolism to reduce power constraints and act as natural chassis and actuators with damage tolerance. Previous work established that biohybrid robotic jellyfish can exhibit enhanced speeds up to 2.8 times their baseline behavior in laboratory environments. However, it remains unknown if the results could be applied in natural, dynamic ocean environments and what factors can contribute to large animal variability. Deploying this system in the coastal waters of Massachusetts, we validate and extend prior laboratory work by demonstrating increases in jellyfish swimming speeds up to 2.3 times greater than their baseline, with absolute swimming speeds up to 6.6 ± 0.3 cm s-1. These experimental swimming speeds are predicted using a hydrodynamic model with morphological and time-dependent input parameters obtained from field experiment videos. The theoretical model can provide a basis to choose specific jellyfish with desirable traits to maximize enhancements from robotic manipulation. With future work to increase maneuverability and incorporate sensors, biohybrid robotic jellyfish can potentially be used track environmental changes in applications for ocean monitoring.

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Thrust force characterization of free-swimming soft robotic jellyfish

Cited by 111 publications

References 37 publications

Jellyfish-Inspired Soft Robot Driven by Fluid Electrode Dielectric Organic Robotic Actuators

Jellyfish-Inspired Soft Robot Driven by Fluid Electrode Dielectric Organic Robotic Actuators

Multi-functional soft-bodied jellyfish-like swimming

Field testing of biohybrid robotic jellyfish to demonstrate enhanced swimming speeds

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