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Underwater Soft Robots

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Soft Actuators

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Abstract

Two underwater soft robots using ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs), a ray-like robot and a quadruped robot, are introduced. For autonomous operation of the ray-like robot, miniaturized electrical devices are developed. A simple traveling wave input is employed to generate the motion of the fin. The propulsion speed of the robot is able to be controlled by the parameters of the traveling wave. In the experiment we observed that the amplitude of the fin increased toward the backward in spite of the uniform control input. This phenomenon may be the key to achieve the energy-efficient swimming of underwater robots by utilizing the elasticity of the actuator. The underwater quadruped robot is developed from a sheet of IPMC of which electrode is segmented into some parts to be controlled independently. We demonstrate the electro-discharge machining (EDM) method is useful to segment the electrode with the minimum damage to the polymer. In the experiment we found by accident that the deformation of the IPMC became gradually large by ion exchange with the copper electrode contact. Finally we show the gait of turtle is effective to control the developed quadruped robot.

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Acknowledgements

Mr. Masanori Yamamura developed the ray-like robot and carried out the experiment. Mr. Naoki Tomita developed the quadruped robot and carried out the experiment. Dr. Shinya Hirano and Dr. Masaki Onishi helped us to design the experimental setup. Prof. Jonathan Rossiter advised us about the EDM. The authors would like to appreciate Dr. Yoshihiro Nakabo for the valuable discussions and his generous help. Prof. Yoshikazu Hayakawa gave us some useful comments. The authors would also like to appreciate Dr. Toshiharu Mukai, Prof. Masaki Yamakita and Dr. Norihiro Kamamichi for their courtesy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, 464-8603, Japan

    Kentaro Takagi

  2. Department of Computational Science, Graduate School of System Informatics, Kobe University, Nada-ku, Rokkodai-cho, Kobe, 657-8501, Japan

    Zhi-Wei Luo

  3. Health Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Midorigaoka, Ikeda, Osaka, 563-8577, Japan

    Kinji Asaka

Authors
  1. Kentaro Takagi
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  2. Zhi-Wei Luo
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  3. Kinji Asaka
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kentaro Takagi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Osaka, Japan

    Kinji Asaka

  2. University of Yamanashi, Kofu, Japan

    Hidenori Okuzaki

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Takagi, K., Luo, ZW., Asaka, K. (2014). Underwater Soft Robots. In: Asaka, K., Okuzaki, H. (eds) Soft Actuators. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54767-9_28

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