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A Multifunctional Underwater Biomimetic Microrobot

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Robot Fish

Part of the book series: Springer Tracts in Mechanical Engineering ((STME))

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Abstract

Robots play an important role in underwater monitoring and recovery operations, such as pollution detection, submarine sampling and data collection, video mapping, and object recovery in dangerous places. However, regular-sized robots may not be suitable for applications in some restricted underwater environments. Accordingly, in previous research we designed several novel types of bio-inspired microrobots, using ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) and shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators. These microrobots possess some of the attributes of compact structure, multifunctionality, flexibility, and precise positioning. However, they lack the attributes of long endurance, stable high speed, and large load capacity necessary for real-world applications. To overcome these disadvantages, we propose a mother–son robot system, composed of several microrobots as sons and a newly designed amphibious spherical robot as the mother. In this system, the mother robot is actuated by four water-jet propellers and eight servomotors, capable of providing stable high speed and carrying the microrobots to the desired target location where tasks are to be performed. Generally speaking, compact structure, multifunctionality, and precise positioning are considered incompatible characteristics for underwater microrobots. To realize the necessary multifunctionality for adapting to complex underwater environments, we introduce a walking biomimetic microrobot with two kinds of motion attitudes: a lying state and a standing state. The microrobot uses eleven IPMC actuators to move and two SMA actuators to change its motion attitude. In the lying state, the microrobot implements stick-insect-inspired walking/rotating motion, fishlike swimming motion, horizontal grasping motion, and floating motion. In the standing state, it implements inchworm-inspired crawling motion in two horizontal directions and grasping motion in the vertical direction. We constructed a prototype of this biomimetic microrobot and evaluated its walking, rotating, and floating speeds experimentally. The experimental results indicated that the robot could attain a maximum walking speed of 3.6 mm/s, a maximum rotational speed of 9 °/s, and a maximum floating speed of 7.14 mm/s. Obstacle-avoidance and swimming experiments were also carried out to demonstrate its multifunctionality.

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Acknowledgments

This research is partly supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (61375094), Key Research Program of the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin (13JCZDJC26200) and National High Tech. Research and Development Program of China (No.2015AA043202).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China

    Shuxiang Guo & Liwei Shi

  2. Faculty of Engineering, Kagawa University, 2217-20 Hayashi-cho, Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan

    Shuxiang Guo

Authors
  1. Shuxiang Guo
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  2. Liwei Shi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shuxiang Guo .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Ruxu Du

  2. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Zheng Li

  3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Kamal Youcef-Toumi

  4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Pablo Valdivia y Alvarado

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© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Guo, S., Shi, L. (2015). A Multifunctional Underwater Biomimetic Microrobot. In: Du, R., Li, Z., Youcef-Toumi, K., Valdivia y Alvarado, P. (eds) Robot Fish. Springer Tracts in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-46870-8_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-46870-8_10

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-46869-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-46870-8

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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