A new type of underwater fish-like microrobot

Abstract

It is our purpose to develop an underwater microrobot that has the characteristics of flexibility, driven by a low voltage, good response and safe body. We have reported an underwater fish-like microrobot with 2 DOF that has the characteristics of flexibility, good response and safe body before. In this paper, we propose a new prototype model of an underwater microrobot utilizing an ICPF (ionic conducting polymer film) actuator as the servo actuator to realize swimming motion with 3 DOF. A biomimetic fish-like microrobot using an ICPF actuator as a propulsion tail fin and a buoyancy adjuster for a microrobot swimming structure in water or aqueous medium is developed. The overall size of the underwater microrobot prototype shaped as a fish is 45 mm in length, 10 mm in width and 4 mm in thickness. It has a pair of fins and a floatage adjuster. Characteristics of the underwater microrobot are measured by changing the frequency and amplitude of input voltage. The experimental results indicate that the swimming speed of the proposed underwater microrobot can be controlled by changing the frequency of input voltage, the moving direction (upward or downward) can be controlled by changing the amplitude and the frequency of input voltage.