硬さと柔らかさを両立するヒレを搭載したエイ型水中ロボットの開発

抄録

Underwater robots capable of performing seafloor exploration are highly useful to discover resources and unknown creatures. However, traditional underwater robots equipped with screw propellers may be harmful to surrounding environment and ecosystem. This motivates us to develop a robot that incorporates the shape and function of aquatic animal, in this study, a stingray. We have developed a stingray robot consisted of soft material and cartilage that mimics the structure of natural counterpart. We show that the use of cartilage can be possible significantly improve the swimming speed and propulsion efficiency.