Development and experimental assessment of a flexible robot fin

Gkliva, Roza; Sfakiotakis, Michael; Kruusmaa, Maarja

doi:10.1109/robosoft.2018.8404921

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The efficiency metric η, shows that this actuator performs worse than previous prototypes designed exclusively for aquatic locomotion [38], [39], mainly due to reduced force generation. While further optimization of the actuator's morphology, motion planning and control can improve this metric, we recognize that the reduced performance is a tradeoff that enables locomotion in terrestrial conditions.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Soft Fluidic Actuator for Locomotion in Multi-Phase Environments

Gkliva

Kruusmaa

2022

IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett.

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This letter presents the design, development, and experimental assessment of a soft fluidic actuator that can enable locomotion in a variety of aquatic and terrestrial environments. Most actuation strategies for amphibious locomotion rely on rigid, fast moving components to generate thrust and tractive forces. Our prototype, comprising soft materials, and relying on simple motion planning and control strategies, demonstrates two gaits, that we employ for locomotion in two vastly different scenarios, underwater swimming and moving on granular terrain with varying levels of water content. By adjusting its internal pressure, the actuator dynamically varies its stiffness and shape, and transitions between wheel and soft paddle form. Experimental results of locomotion in controlled laboratory conditions serve as proof-of-concept for the proposed actuator's efficacy. Using two different motion patterns and control schemes, we show that this prototype achieves both thrust and tractive forces.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Soft Fluidic Actuator for Locomotion in Multi-Phase Environments

Gkliva

Kruusmaa

2022

IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett.

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“…8 in [16], Fig. 7 in [36]), as well as in our experiments as shown in Fig. 2 The paper is organized as follows.…”

Section: Design and Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 92%

Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Technical Sciences

Burzynski,

Simha,

Kotta

et al. 2021

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This paper presents the design of a versatile mechanism that can enable new directions in amphibious, all-terrain locomotion. The simple, passive, flapped-paddle can be integrated with several structures that are well-suited for locomotion in terrestrial applications. The flapped-paddle overcomes a serious limitation of the conventional flipper where the net lateral forces generated during oscillatory motion in aquatic environments averages out to zero. The flapped-paddle and its mounting, collectively, rests in natural positions in the aquatic environment so as to maximize hydrodynamic force utilization and consequently the propulsive efficiency. The simplicity of the design enabled us to develop a simulation model that concurs well with experimental results. The results reported in the paper are based on integrating the flapped-paddle with the curved leg of the RHex hexapod robot.

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“…In equation ( 13), all constants are known (as summarized in Table 2), and the coefficient was identified based on the experimental fins' thrust data [10]. A minimal RMS 1 error between the experimental assessment of the fins and the proposed analytical model is obtained for = 0.23.…”

Section: The Proposed Fin Model: a Nonlinear Analytical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inverse-model intelligent control of fin-actuated underwater robots based on drag force propulsion

2021

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Fin-actuated underwater robots usually control motion by changing the locomotion primitives of the fins, such as frequency, amplitude, phase shift, or in more complicated cases also the angle of attack. Modelling the generated thrust by an oscillating fin results in a highly non-linear model, thus making it difficult to derive a respective inverse model. In this work, we derived a dynamic model relating the generated thrust to the fins oscillating amplitude and frequency, and proposed the associated inverse-model. The proposed model's accuracy is evaluated by comparing both the theoretical and measured generated thrust for various frequencies. Furthermore, using the proposed fin model, we demonstrate hovering experimental results with the robot U-CAT. The results demonstrate the possibility to control fin-actuated vehicles using the proposed model to generate the fins oscillation amplitudes as control input.

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Development and experimental assessment of a flexible robot fin

Cited by 4 publications

References 18 publications

Soft Fluidic Actuator for Locomotion in Multi-Phase Environments

Soft Fluidic Actuator for Locomotion in Multi-Phase Environments

Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Technical Sciences

Inverse-model intelligent control of fin-actuated underwater robots based on drag force propulsion

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