Design, analysis and experiments of a wireless swimming micro robot

A bi-directional wireless micro biomimetic swimming robot based on two giant magnetostrictive thin film (GMF) actuators is developed. By deriving the dynamic equations of GMF in terms of generalized coordinates according to force oscillation theory and establishing a propulsive model using fin beating principle, an innovative drive approach is proposed. Two GMFs with separate second stage resonance frequencies are integrated to implement bi-directional swimming. Simulation and experimental results have demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed approach and design. The developed swimming micro robot features low driving frequency, low energy consumption and large range of swimming speed in both forward and backward directions.