Kinematic Study on Generated Thrust of Bioinspired Robotic with Undulating Propulsion

This paper presents the design and simulation evaluation of a self-contained submersion robot that mimics the actual flexible locomotion of American knifefish. First, a prototype of the bio-inspired submersion robot with a single undulating fin running along the length of the robot is developed. This undulating fin is a segmental fin comprised of sixteen fin rays that produce sinusoidal waves to propel the robot. Then, a system modeling of the robot is established to investigate the kinematics of undulating propulsion. A feedback linearization controller is employed to achieve the undulating propulsion velocity. The simulation results demonstrate that the developed prototype of the bio-inspired submersion robot can realize the desired thrust and velocity by the means of the undulating fin propulsion.