Aquatic swimmers, whether natural or artificial, leverage their maneuverability and morphological adaptability to operate successfully in diverse, complex underwater environments. Maneuverability allows swimmers the agility to change speed and direction within a constrained operating space, while morphological adaptability allows their bodies to deform as they avoid obstacles and pass through narrow gaps. In this work, we design a soft, modular, nonbiomorphic swimming robot that emulates the maneuverability and adaptability of biological swimmers. This tethered swimming robot is actuated by a two degree-of-freedom (2-DOF) cable-driven mechanism that enables not only common maneuvers, such as undulatory surging and pitch/yaw rotations, but also a roll rotation maneuver that is steady and controllable. This simple 2-DOF system demonstrates full 3D swimming abilities in a space-constrained underwater test bed. The soft compliant body and passive foldable fins of the swimming robot lend to its morphological adaptability, allowing it to move through narrow gaps, channels, and tunnels and to avoid obstacles without the need for a low-level feedback control strategy. The passive adaptability and maneuvering capabilities of our swimming robot offer a new approach to achieving underwater navigation in complex real-world settings.
BarkerLD, JakubaMV, BowenAD, et al.Scientific challenges and present capabilities in underwater robotic vehicle design and navigation for oceanographic exploration under-ice. Remote Sens, 2020; 12(16):2588.
3.
GaliliE, DahariU, ShanitJ. Underwater surveys and rescue excavations along the Israeli coast. Int J Naut Archaeol, 1993; 22(1):61–77.
4.
AracriS, Giorgio-SerchiF, SuariaG, et al.Soft robots for ocean exploration and offshore operations: A perspective. Soft Robot, 2021; 8(6):625–639.
5.
DvwkFA.Fish Passes: Design, Dimensions, and Monitoring. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: Rome; 2002.
6.
DuR, LiZ, KamalYT, et al.Robot Fish. Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg;. 2015.
7.
ScaradozziD, PalmieriG, CostaD, et al.BCF swimming locomotion for autonomous underwater robots: A review and a novel solution to improve control and efficiency. Ocean Eng, 2017; 130:437–453.
8.
ZhongY, LiZ, DuR. A novel robot fish with wire-driven active body and compliant tail. IEEE ASME Trans Mechatron, 2017; 22(4):1633–1643.
9.
CrespiA, IjspeertAJ. Online optimization of swimming and crawling in an amphibious snake robot. IEEE Trans Robot, 2008; 24(1):75–87.
10.
ChigisakiS, MoriM, YamadaH, et al.Design and Control of Amphibious Snake-like Robot ACM-R5. In: Proceedings of the 2005 JSME Conference on Robotics and Mechatronics, ALL-N-020 (1)–(3). Japan; 2005.
11.
TsakirisDP, EvdaimonT, PapadakisE.Aquatic Swimming of a Multi-functional Pedundulatory Bio-Robotic Locomotor. In: Conference on Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems. Springer: Cham; 2018; pp. 494–506.
12.
KangS, YuJ, ZhangJ, et al.Development of multibody marine robots: A review. IEEE Access, 2020; 8:21178–21195.
13.
ChutiaS, KakotyNM, DekaD.A review of underwater robotics, navigation, sensing techniques and applications. Proceedings of the Advances in Robotics; 2017; pp.1–6.
FishFE, BosticSA, NicastroAJ, et al.Death roll of the alligator: Mechanics of twist feeding in water. J Exp Biol, 2007; 210(16):2811–2818.
19.
FishFE, NicastroAJ, WeihsD. Dynamics of the aerial maneuvers of spinner dolphins. J Exp Biol, 2006; 209(4):590–598.
20.
PetillotY, RuizIT, LaneDM. Underwater vehicle obstacle avoidance and path planning using a multi-beam forward looking sonar. IEEE J Ocean Eng, 2001; 26(2):240–251.
21.
KelasidiE, MoeS, PettersenK, et al.Path following, obstacle detection and obstacle avoidance for thrusted underwater snake robots. Front Robot AI, 2019; 6:57.
22.
XanthidisM, KarapetyanN, DamronH, et al. Navigation in the presence of obstacles for an agile autonomous underwater vehicle. In: 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). IEEE; NODUS; 2020; pp. 892–899.
23.
ZhangS, QianY, LiaoP, et al.Design and control of an agile robotic fish with integrative biomimetic mechanisms. IEEE ASME Trans Mechatron, 2016; 21(4):1846–1857.
24.
ChenJ, ChenY, YuB, et al.Obstacle Avoidance Control Strategy of a Biomimetic Wire-driven Robot Fish. In: 2019 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO). IEEE: Dali, Yunnan, China; 2019; pp. 326–331.
25.
WhiteCH, LauderGV, Bart-SmithH. Tunabot flex: A tuna-inspired robot with body flexibility improves high-performance swimming. Bioinspir Biomim, 2021; 16(2):026019.
26.
KatzschmannRK, DelPretoJ, MacCurdyR, et al.Exploration of underwater life with an acoustically controlled soft robotic fish. Sci Robot, 2018; 3(16):eaar3449.
27.
EspositoCJ, TangorraJL, EspositoBE, et al.A robotic fish caudal fin: effects of stiffness and motor program on locomotor performance. J Exp Biol, 2012; 215(1):56–67.
ChengH, ZhangJ, LiY, et al.Finite-time tracking control for a variable stiffness pneumatic soft bionic caudal fin. Mech Syst Signal Process, 2021; 152:107314.
30.
FrameJ, LopezN, CuretO, et al.Thrust force characterization of free-swimming soft robotic jellyfish. Bioinspir Biomim, 2018; 13(6):064001.
31.
VespignaniM, MeloK, BonardiS, et al.Role of Compliance on the Locomotion of a Reconfigurable Modular Snake Robot. In: 2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). IEEE: Hamburg, Germany; 2015; pp. 2238–2245.
32.
WhitmanJ, RuscelliF, TraversM, et al.Shape-based compliant control with variable coordination centralization on a snake robot. In: 2016 IEEE 55th Conference on Decision and Control (CDC). IEEE: Las Vegas, NV; 2016; pp. 5165–5170.
33.
DuivonA, KirschP, MauboussinB, et al.The redesigned serpens, a low-cost, highly compliant snake robot. Robotics, 2022; 11(2):42.
34.
DongX, RafflesM, GuzmanSC, et al.Design and analysis of a family of snake arm robots connected by compliant joints. Mech Mach Theory, 2014; 77:73–91.
35.
LiuB, HammondFL. Modular Platform for the Exploration of Form-Function Relationships in Soft Swimming Robots. In: 2020 3rd IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft). IEEE: New Haven, CT; 2020; pp. 772–778.
36.
LiuB, HammondFL. Demonstration of a Novel Phase Lag Controlled Roll Rotation Mechanism using a Two-DOF Soft Swimming Robot. In: 2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). IEEE: Las Vegas, NV; 2020; pp. 1705–1710.
37.
AydinYO, RieserJM, HubickiCM, et al.Physics Approaches to Natural Locomotion: Every Robot is an Experiment. In: Robotic Systems and Autonomous Platforms. Woodhead Publishing: Sawston, UK; 2019; pp. 109–127.
38.
AguilarJ, ZhangT, QianF, et al.A review on locomotion robophysics: The study of movement at the intersection of robotics, soft matter and dynamical systems. Rep Prog Phys, 2016; 79(11):110001.
39.
FishFE, HurleyJ, CostaDP. Maneuverability by the sea lion Zalophus californianus: turning performance of an unstable body design. J Exp Biol, 2003; 206(4):667–674.
40.
ParsonJM, FishFE, NicastroAJ. Turning performance of batoids: Limitations of a rigid body. J Exp Mar Biol Ecol, 2011; 402(1–2):8–12.
41.
FishFE, NicastroAJ. Aquatic turning performance by the whirligig beetle: Constraints on maneuverability by a rigid biological system. J Exp Biol, 2003; 206(10):1649–1656.
42.
HuiCA.Maneuverability of the Humboldt penguin (Spheniscus humboldti) during swimming. Can J Zool, 1985; 63(9):2165–2167.
43.
BlakeRW, ChattersLM, DomeniciP. Turning radius of yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) in unsteady swimming manoeuvres. J Fish Biol, 1995; 46(3):536–538.
44.
FishFE, RohrJ. Review of Dolphin Hydrodynamics and Swimming Performance. SSC Technical Report, 1801; 1999.
45.
WalkerJA.Does a rigid body limit maneuverability?. J Exp Biol, 2000; 203(22):3391–3396.
46.
YuJ, DingR, YangQ, et al.Amphibious pattern design of a robotic fish with wheel-propeller-fin mechanisms. J Field Robot, 2013; 30(5):702–716.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
