A bio-inspired compliant robotic fish: Design and experiments

This paper studies the modelling, design and fabrication of a bio-inspired fish-like robot propelled by a compliant body. The key to the design is the use of a single motor to actuate the compliant body and to generate thrust. The robot has the same geometrical properties of a subcarangiform swimmer with the same length. The design is based on rigid head and fin linked together with a compliant body. The flexible part is modelled as a non-uniform cantilever beam actuated by a concentrated moment. The dynamics of the compliant body are studied and a relationship between the applied moment and the resulting motion is derived. A prototype that implements the proposed approach is built. Experiments on the prototype are done to identify the model parameters and to validate the theoretical modelling.