Speed and Energy Efficiency of a Fish Robot Featuring Exponential Patterns of Control

Fish in nature have evolved more efficient swimming capabilities compared to that of propeller-driven autonomous underwater vehicles. Motivated by such knowledge, we discuss a bionic (bio-memetic) autonomous underwater vehicle—a fish robot—that mimics the swimming of rainbow trout (<i>Oncorhyn...

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Main Author: Ivan Tanev
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-02-01
Series:Actuators
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0825/14/3/119
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author Ivan Tanev
author_facet Ivan Tanev
author_sort Ivan Tanev
collection DOAJ
description Fish in nature have evolved more efficient swimming capabilities compared to that of propeller-driven autonomous underwater vehicles. Motivated by such knowledge, we discuss a bionic (bio-memetic) autonomous underwater vehicle—a fish robot—that mimics the swimming of rainbow trout (<i>Oncorhynchus mykiss</i>) in nature. The robot consists of three (anterior, posterior, and tail) segments, connected via two (anterior and posterior) actuated hinge joints. We divided the half-period of undulation of the robot into two phases—thrusting and braking. In addition, we hypothesized that an asymmetric duration—a short period of thrusting and a long period of braking—implemented as an exponential (rather than “canonical”, sinusoidal) control would favorably affect the net propulsion of these two phases. The experimental results verified that, compared to sinusoidal undulation, the proposed exponential control results in increased speed of the robot between 1.1 to 4 times in the range of frequencies of undulation between 0.4 Hz and 2 Hz, and improved energy efficiency from 1.1 to 3.6 times in the same frequency range.
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spelling doaj-art-46b2ea6e40604587b16301a6d59e92962025-08-20T03:40:41ZengMDPI AGActuators2076-08252025-02-0114311910.3390/act14030119Speed and Energy Efficiency of a Fish Robot Featuring Exponential Patterns of ControlIvan Tanev0Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Doshisha University, Kyoto 610-0321, JapanFish in nature have evolved more efficient swimming capabilities compared to that of propeller-driven autonomous underwater vehicles. Motivated by such knowledge, we discuss a bionic (bio-memetic) autonomous underwater vehicle—a fish robot—that mimics the swimming of rainbow trout (<i>Oncorhynchus mykiss</i>) in nature. The robot consists of three (anterior, posterior, and tail) segments, connected via two (anterior and posterior) actuated hinge joints. We divided the half-period of undulation of the robot into two phases—thrusting and braking. In addition, we hypothesized that an asymmetric duration—a short period of thrusting and a long period of braking—implemented as an exponential (rather than “canonical”, sinusoidal) control would favorably affect the net propulsion of these two phases. The experimental results verified that, compared to sinusoidal undulation, the proposed exponential control results in increased speed of the robot between 1.1 to 4 times in the range of frequencies of undulation between 0.4 Hz and 2 Hz, and improved energy efficiency from 1.1 to 3.6 times in the same frequency range.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0825/14/3/119bionic autonomous underwater vehiclefish robotasymmetric duration of phases of undulationexponential control
spellingShingle Ivan Tanev
Speed and Energy Efficiency of a Fish Robot Featuring Exponential Patterns of Control
Actuators
bionic autonomous underwater vehicle
fish robot
asymmetric duration of phases of undulation
exponential control
title Speed and Energy Efficiency of a Fish Robot Featuring Exponential Patterns of Control
title_full Speed and Energy Efficiency of a Fish Robot Featuring Exponential Patterns of Control
title_fullStr Speed and Energy Efficiency of a Fish Robot Featuring Exponential Patterns of Control
title_full_unstemmed Speed and Energy Efficiency of a Fish Robot Featuring Exponential Patterns of Control
title_short Speed and Energy Efficiency of a Fish Robot Featuring Exponential Patterns of Control
title_sort speed and energy efficiency of a fish robot featuring exponential patterns of control
topic bionic autonomous underwater vehicle
fish robot
asymmetric duration of phases of undulation
exponential control
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0825/14/3/119
work_keys_str_mv AT ivantanev speedandenergyefficiencyofafishrobotfeaturingexponentialpatternsofcontrol