Development of a High-Speed Swimming Robot With the Capability of Fish-Like Leaping

Achieving fast and agile swimming still remains extremely challenging for a self-propelled robotic fish due to the constraint of actuator's propulsion capability. In this article, we report an untethered bioinspired robotic fish, which combines a high-frequency oscillation and a compliant passive mechanism to realize fast swimming, high pitch maneuvers, and even the leaping motion. For pursuing the explosive propulsion of the robotic fish, we propose an actuation system with a powerful output and a compact structure. A dynamic model is established and indicates that the compliant joint is able to modulate the power transmitted to a caudal fin to affect its velocity in the return stroke for generating more peak thrust. The design is validated with extensive experimental results. Namely, the robotic fish can surprisingly reach up to a speed of 3.8 body lengths per second (BL/s). Compared to the case with a rigid joint, dramatic improvements, involving a speed of 1.2 BL/s and a swimming distance of 141.2 m (70.6%), have been obtained, which reveal that besides the high-frequency oscillation, the compliant passive mechanism is also of great significance to perform high-speed swimming. Additionally, the robotic fish demonstrates its high pitch maneuvers by performing an agile front flip motion with a radius of 0.4 BL and an average angular velocity of 439 degrees/s. Most importantly, with a simple control strategy, our robotic fish can remarkably leap out of water completely. Results from this study provide significant insights into the innovative designs of next-generation robotic fishes, which require high speed and maneuverability.

Automated summary

This article introduces an untethered bioinspired robotic fish that achieves fast swimming, high pitch maneuvers, and leaping motion through high-frequency oscillation and a compliant passive mechanism. Experimental results show that the compliant joint plays a crucial role in improving the propulsion performance of the robotic fish during high-speed swimming.