A novel multifunctional underwater microrobot

Abstract

Biomimetic microrobots with multi DOF have powerful applications in the field of underwater monitoring for applications such as pollution detection and video mapping. Most robots focus on complex structure of multi-joint legs to attain the multifunction and flexibility, while others have poor flexibility for miniaturization. To attain a microrobot with compact structure, multifunction, and flexible locomotion, we designed a novel type of biomimetic locomotion employing ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) actuators as one-DOF legs or fingers. Then we proposed a new type of underwater microrobot using ten ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) actuators as legs or fingers, which could realize walking, rotating, floating, and grasping motions. Also, we developed a prototype of this type of underwater microrobot and conducted experiments to evaluate its walking and floating speeds. In addition, we used six IPMC actuators as fingers to grasp some small objects and carry them to float up.