Three-phase Control for Miniaturization of a Snake-like Swimming Robot

We present the design and control of a soft undulating snake-like swimming robot that can be miniaturized down to the millimeter scale. We consider the miniaturization of an ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) robot with respect to Reynolds number and propose biologically inspired undulating motion as a suitable swimming mechanism that can scaled down in excess of three orders of magnitude. We examine the control system needed to generate this undulating motion and take inspiration from poly-phase electrical power delivery systems to greatly simplify the control system, while maintaining the ability to move forwards and backwards and to turn. As a result of the simplified three-phase control we can further simplify the structure of the robot and make miniaturization more practical.

[1]  Yoseph Bar-Cohen,et al.  Measurements and macro models of ionomeric polymer-metal composites (IPMC) , 2002, SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring.

[2]  J. Videler,et al.  How the body contributes to the wake in undulatory fish swimming: flow fields of a swimming eel (Anguilla anguilla). , 2001, The Journal of experimental biology.

[3]  P Holmes,et al.  An elastic rod model for anguilliform swimming , 2006, Journal of mathematical biology.

[4]  Ulrike K Müller,et al.  The Scaling and Structure of Aquatic Animal Wakes1 , 2002, Integrative and comparative biology.

[5]  Aude Billard,et al.  A simulation model of the locomotion controllers for the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans , 2004 .

[6]  R. McNeill Alexander,et al.  Principles of Animal Locomotion , 2002 .