Abstract
In this paper, we propose a compact swimming mechanism which has not only horizontal but also vertical slalom performance despite its compact body. The proposed mechanism has two distinguished features. One is the use of a water jet as a driving device for propulsion. The other one is the use of an elastic differential, which generates a two-dimensional deformation of a V-shaped elastic strip by driving the both ends with two rotational motors, for bending the flexible nozzle of the water jet laterally and vertically. Due to these features, the proposed mechanism can change its swimming direction quickly and smoothly. Experimental results in water show that the proposed mechanism can achive not only a horizontal slalom motion at intervals of 1.2 body length(350[mm]), but also a vertical slalom motion at intervals of 2.1 body length(600[mm]) with maintaining the maximum propulsion speed 1.46 body length per second (0.43 [m/s]
