Tail-Assisted Mobility and Stability Enhancement in Yaw and Pitch Motions of a Water-Running Robot

Water-running robots have been developed inspired by a basilisk lizard, which demonstrates highly agile, stable, and energy-efficient locomotion on water surfaces. Current water-running robots are not as stable and agile as their biological counterparts. This study shows how the stability of a water-running robot in the pitch direction can be improved by using an active tail to enable increased propulsion. The mobility of the robot is also increased. To generate force in the pitch and yaw directions, a two-degrees-of-freedom tail is implemented with two circular plates to provide drag. We developed two types of dynamic models for pitch and yaw behavior, and the results are recursively calculated by considering the correlation between the models. The relationship between pitch motion and propulsion was analyzed by simulations. The steering behavior of the robot is also validated while considering the pitch behavior. Experiments were conducted to verify the simulation results.