Jellyfish-Inspired Soft Robot Driven by Pneumatic Bistable Actuators

Abstract

Soft actuators offer numerous potential applications; however, challenges persist in achieving a high driving force and fast response speed. In this work, we present the design, fabrication, and analysis of a soft pneumatic bistable actuator (PBA) mimicking jellyfish subumbrellar muscle motion for waterjet propulsion. Drawing inspiration from the jellyfish jet propulsion and the characteristics of bistable structure, we develop an elastic band stretch prebending PBA with a simple structure, low inflation cost, exceptional driving performance, and stable driving force output. Through a bionic analysis of jellyfish body structure and motion, we integrate the PBA into a jellyfish-like prototype, enabling it to achieve jet propulsion. To enhance the swimming performance, we introduce a skin-like structure for connecting the soft actuator to the jellyfish-like soft robot prototype. This skin-like structure optimizes the fluid dynamics during jet propulsion, resulting in improved efficiency and maneuverability. Our study further analyzes the swimming performance of the jellyfish-like prototype, demonstrating a swimming speed of 3.8 cm/s (0.32 body length/s, BL/s) for the tethered prototype and 4.7 cm/s (0.38 BL/s) for the untethered prototype. Moreover, we showcase the jellyfish-like prototype’s notable load-bearing capacity and fast-forward swimming performance compared to other driving methods for underwater biomimetic robots. This work provides valuable insights for the development of highly agile and fast responsive soft robots that imitate the subumbrellar muscle of jellyfish for efficient water-jet propulsion, utilizing skin-like structures to enhance swimming performance.