A wireless biomimetic underwater microrobot for a father-son robot system

A father-son underwater robot system is proposed for the underwater intervention in our previous research. In this system, the underwater microrobots used as the mechanical arms are carried by a high-speed amphibious spherical father robot and controlled by the robot with cables. In this paper, a smart actuator-based wireless microrobot is designed and developed as the mechanical arm of the father robot to recycle the small object. The biomimetic son robot is actuated by nine ICPF (ionic conducting polymer film) actuators, which can realize the basic motions including walking, rotating and grasping motions. To implement the communication between the father robot and the wireless microrobots, a new cableless communication method is proposed. The father robot uses two LEDs (light-emitting diodes) to send signals to control the motion of microrobots and used a Wi-Fi camera module to catch the feedback signals from the microrobots. Two light sensors and two indicator lights are equipped on the microrobot. Moreover, the father robot can send out and receive the microrobot with the fixture mechanism and the LED tracking mechanism. We evaluated the performance of the basic motions of the microrobot. Finally, we carried out the experiments to verify the communication protocol.