Abstract
This work presents an autonomous soft-bodied robotic fish that is hydraulically actuated and capable of sustained swimming in three dimensions. The design of a fish-like soft body has been extended to deform under hydraulic instead of pneumatic power. Moreover, a new closed-circuit drive system that uses water as a transmission fluid is used to actuate the soft body. Circulation of water through internal body channels provides control over the fish’s caudal fin propulsion and yaw motion. A new fabrication technique for the soft body is described, which allows for arbitrary internal fluidic channels, enabling a wide-range of continuous body deformations. Furthermore, dynamic diving capabilities are introduced through pectoral fins as dive planes. These innovations enable prolonged fish-like locomotion in three dimensions.
This work was done in the Distributed Robotics Laboratory within CSAIL at MIT with support from the National Science Foundation, grant numbers NSF 1117178, NSF EAGER 1133224, NSF IIS1226883 and NSF CCF1138967, and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program, primary award number 1122374. We are grateful for this support. The authors declare no competing financial interests.
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Katzschmann, R.K., Marchese, A.D., Rus, D. (2016). Hydraulic Autonomous Soft Robotic Fish for 3D Swimming. In: Hsieh, M., Khatib, O., Kumar, V. (eds) Experimental Robotics. Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, vol 109. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23778-7_27
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