Large Amplitude Swimming of a Robot Fish Actuated by Wire-driven Snap-through Buckling

Abstract

We aim to develop an underwater swimming robot which can move quickly like the fish. Our adopted approach is to use the snap-through buckling to generate powerful fin oscillation. The series of our works have revealed the validity of our approach. This paper focuses on the caudal fin joint which connects the body part to the fin. Movable caudal fin joint will oscillate the fin with large amplitude, which may result in the more quick locomotion. This paper compares the swimming results in the case of the fixed fin joint and those in the case of the movable one.