Sea-U-Whale: A Reconfigurable Marine Robot with Multi-Modal Motion
Wendi Ding, Zuoquan Zhao, Ruixin Yan, Songqun Gao, Zixuan Guo, Xuchen Liu, Ben M. Chen
Abstract
As marine exploration becomes increasingly important, marine robots have been extensively studied in recent years. Despite some well-designed robots have already achieved to various successful missions, most existing robots struggle to adapt to diverse demands or tasks due to their fixed structure and complexity of the marine environment. To address these challenges, we present a novel reconfigurable marine robot named Sea-U-Whale. This system can dynamically adjust its actuator configuration in the marine environment, providing superior environmental adaptability, maneuverability, and ver-satile mobility. Considering the demands of unmanned ocean exploration, an active reconfiguration mechanism and three distinct vehicle modes are designed for optimal actuation in various marine scenarios. The multi-modal mobility of our system and its robust performance have been validated through extensive field tests and water tank experiments, demonstrating its potential in handling a wide range of mission profiles.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{icra2025_seauwhaleareconf,
title = {Sea-U-Whale: A Reconfigurable Marine Robot with Multi-Modal Motion},
author = {Wendi Ding and Zuoquan Zhao and Ruixin Yan and Songqun Gao and Zixuan Guo and Xuchen Liu and Ben M. Chen},
booktitle = {ICRA 2025},
year = {2025}
}