Gliding, swimming and walking: Development of multi-functional underwater robot Glide Walker

In order to investigate under the sea, various types of underwater robots have been developed. However, most robots can only perform one type of moving such as screw, water gliding or walking, even though there are some creatures which use various types of locomotion in the wild life. Thus, we propose a new type of underwater robot, the “Glide Walker”, which can change its way of locomotion between gliding, walking and swimming depending on the situation. It can be performed by using its two wings with 3 DOFs each and its tail with 1 DOF. This article presents the basic concept, the moving strategy and the mechanical design of the robot in details. Moreover, it also presents the developed prototype, as well as the conducted experiments in which the robot was able to perform the three ways of locomotion successfully. Additionally, it also shows the high manipulation capability and the loop maneuver performance of the robot when in the swimming mode.