Current and future trends of biologically inspired underwater vehicles

The combination of biological principles, mechanical engineering, and robotics has opened up an entirely new area and possibility. In addition to those works from active and prominent groups in the international biomimetics community on bio inspired aquatic robots, recent research and development works on underwater robotics by the NTU team will be presented in this paper. The bio-inspired fin design on the underwater vehicles will be illustrated together with the concept of modular mechanism segments. The specified fin mechanical layout is able to produce a wide range of motions in various modes. Some swimming test results of the finned robots will be briefly shown. Design issues and challenges towards the effective implementation in terms of energy. The discussion on biological inspired underwater vehicles comes at a particularly appropriate time when activity in the area of biomimetics is increasing. This paper should also act as a good introduction to engineers and technologists might not be familiar to the fields.