Abstract

This paper deals with an experimental study of propulsive performance of aquatic mobile robot using waving motion of a flexible plate modeled on the flexible caudal fin of fish. The flexible plate is attached at the trailing edge of the oscillating robot body in the shape of wing pitching and heaving around the leading edge of the body, and the waving motion of the flexible plate is excited by motion of the oscillating body. In the experiment, first, the propulsion force and the side force generated by the waving motion of the flexible plate are measured for various length, exciting frequency and flexibility of the flexible plate in stationary water in a channel. Secondly, the swimming speed and propulsive efficiency are examined. As a result, it is found that the propulsive performance of the robot using flexible plate is higher than that of the rigid plate. And the high propulsive performance of propulsive efficiency of 62% and mean swimming speed of 0.3m/s are obtained by using the waving motion of the flexible plate.

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