A frog-inspired swimming robot based on dielectric elastomer actuators
Yucheng Tang, Lei Qin, Xiaoning Li, Chee-Meng Chew, Jian Zhu
Abstract
Frogs are capable of multiple locomotion modes including jumping and swimming, which enables them to adapt to various environmental conditions. This paper demonstrates a frog-inspired robot, which can mimic the swimming motion of a natural frog. The robot is developed based on dielectric elastomer actuators, which exhibits muscle-like behavior such as large voltage-induced deformation, high energy density, fast response and low weight. Inspired by the webbed feet of a frog, the foot actuator of the swimming robot is able to increase its projected area by 66% when subject to high voltage. Actuation of the foot actuators can significantly improve the averaged peak thrust by 34.5%. The total mass of the two dielectric elastomer actuators is 14g which only accounts for 13% of its total mass of 108g. The measured average swimming speed for a square wave voltage of 5kV and 0.25Hz is 19mm/s for the swimming robot. Future work of the project includes optimal design and control of this soft robot.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{iros2017_afroginspiredswi,
title = {A frog-inspired swimming robot based on dielectric elastomer actuators},
author = {Yucheng Tang and Lei Qin and Xiaoning Li and Chee-Meng Chew and Jian Zhu},
booktitle = {IROS 2017},
year = {2017}
}