A Miniature Robotic Turtle With Target Tracking and Wireless Charging Systems Based on IPMCs

State-of-the-art autonomous micro-robotic turtles suffer from various limitations, such as power restrictions that minimize their deployment times. In this paper, an Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC) actuator-based centimeter-level biomimetic underwater robot was designed and developed as a robotic turtle with self-charging capabilities to overcome such limitations. It could move forward and make turns driven by five IPMCs on the water. The underwater charging station was able to transmit wideband ultrasonic and electromagnetic fields for electromagnetic induction charging. An ultrasonic communication system with one ultrasonic transmitter and two ultrasonic receivers was first fabricated to implement communication between the underwater station and the biomimetic underwater robot for autonomous tracking and rechargeable capabilities. Experiments were carried out to confirm the operation of the biomimetic underwater robot, which verified the centimeter-level rechargeable capabilities and autonomous target tracking features. The micro-robot demonstrated a self-tracking radial displacement error of approximately 6 mm and a charging reliability rate of more than 73%.