A Fast-moving Underwater Wall-climbing Robotic Fish Inspired by Rock-climbing Fish
Hengshen Qin, Chuang Zhang, Wenjun Tan, Ruiqian Wang, Yiwei Zhang, Lianchao Yang, Qi Zhang, Lianqing Liu
Abstract
The rock-climbing fish is a benthic organism that can move rapidly and flexibly on rock surfaces in complex underwater environments. Studies have shown that this unique adhesion-sliding movement mechanism of the rock-climbing fish relies on the anisotropic friction exhibited by its sucker structure, which helps to reduce friction in the forward direction and defend against the impact of the flow field. In this work, inspired by the anisotropic friction phenomenon of the sucker of the rock-climbing fish, we designed the absorption module and pectoral and pelvic fin flapping module of the robotic fish to realize the contact switching from low friction to high friction. Meanwhile the propulsion module adopts a novel design of wire-driven caudal fin that can oscillate at high frequency (exceeding ~5 Hz). Resulting robotic fish can realize different motion modes such as adhesion-sliding movement (~0.5 BL/s) and wall-stabilized adsorption. This work will provide a new solution for the design pattern of underwater wall robots.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{iros2025_afastmovingunder,
title = {A Fast-moving Underwater Wall-climbing Robotic Fish Inspired by Rock-climbing Fish},
author = {Hengshen Qin and Chuang Zhang and Wenjun Tan and Ruiqian Wang and Yiwei Zhang and Lianchao Yang and Qi Zhang and Lianqing Liu},
booktitle = {IROS 2025},
year = {2025}
}