Journal
IEEE-ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS
Volume 23, Issue 6, Pages 2968-2973Publisher
IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC
DOI: 10.1109/TMECH.2018.2873253
Keywords
Aquatic robots; bioinspired robots; explosive motion; hydraulic actuators; soft actuators; soft robots; soft locomotion; variable stiffness actuators
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Funding
- Lloyd's Register Foundation
- Natural Environment Research Council [NE/P003966/1]
- Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute under grant SMMI-HEIF
- EPSRC Robotics and Artificial Intelligence ORCA Hub [EP/R026173/1]
- EPSRC [EP/R026173/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- NERC [NE/P003966/1] Funding Source: UKRI
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A soft hydraulic actuator is presented which uses elastic energy storage for the purpose of pulsed-jet propulsion of soft unmanned underwater vehicles. The actuator consists of a flexible membrane that can be inflated using a micropump and whose elastic potential energy may be released on demand using a controllable valve, in a manner inspired by the swimming of squids and octopuses. It is shown that for equivalent initial elastic energy, the drop in peak thrust is linearly proportional to the decrease in nozzle cross section. Peak hydraulic power amplification of the soft actuator of approximately 75% is achieved with respect to that of the driving pump, confirming that passive elasticity can be exploited in aquatic propulsion to replicate the explosive motion skills of agile sea-dwelling creatures.
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