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A Fish Robot Driven by Piezoceramic Actuators and Miniaturized Power Supply

Nguyen Sang, S. Heo, Hoon Cheol Park

Abstract


In this work, we have introduced a new prototype of fish robot driven by unimorph piezoceramic actuators. To improve the swimming performance of the fish robot in terms of tail beat angle, swimming speed, and thrust force, we used four LIght-weight Piezo-Composite Actuators (LIPCAs) instead of two LIPCAs in the previous model. We also developed a new actuation mechanism consisting of links and gears. Performance tests of the present fish robot were conducted both in the air and in the water at various tail-beat frequencies to measure tail-beat angle, swimming speed, and thrust force. The results of tail-beat angle measurement in the air showed good agreement with that obtained by vector calculus analysis. The tail-beat angle was significantly improved compared to the previous one. The best tail-beat frequency was 1.4 Hz for the fish robot. A miniaturized power supply was developed to excite the LIPCAs and installed inside the fish robot body for free-swimming. The maximum free-swimming speed was 3.2 cm/s and maximum thrust force was 0.0048 N.

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21535%2FProICIUS.2008.v4.847

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