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A Hybrid Territorial Aquatic Bionic Soft Robot with Controllable Transition Capability

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Abstract

In this paper, a bionic mantis shrimp amphibious soft robot based on a dielectric elastomer is proposed to realize highly adaptive underwater multimodal motion. Under the action of an independent actuator, it is not only able to complete forward/backwards motion on land but also has the ability of cyclically controllable transition motion from land to water surface, from water surface to water bottom and from water bottom to land. The fastest speed of the soft robot on land is 170 mm/s, and it can crawl while carrying up to 4.6 times its own weight. The maximum speeds on the water surface and the water bottom are 30 mm/s and 14.4 mm/s, respectively. Furthermore, the soft robot can climb from the water bottom with a 9° slope transition to land. Compared with other similar soft robots, this soft robot has outstanding advantages, such as agile speed, large load-carrying capacity, strong body flexibility, multiple motion modes and strong underwater adaptability. Finally, nonlinear motion models of land crawling and water swimming are proposed to improve the environmental adaptability under multiple modalities, and the correctness of the theoretical model is verified by experiments.

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Data availability

All data included in this study are available upon request by contact with the corresponding author.

Availability of Data and Materials

The data that support the findings of this paper are available from the corresponding author, [Yuan Chen], upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

A grateful acknowledgement is given to the National Natural Science Foundation of China with Grant No. 52075293, Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province with Grant No. ZR2019MEE019 and Research Project of Teaching Reform for Shandong University at Weihai with Grant No.Z2019022.

Funding

Innovative Research Group Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province with Grant No. ZR2019MEE019, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central University with Grant No. 2019ZRJC006.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechatronics and Information Engineering, Shandong University at Weihai, Weihai, 264209, China

    Qingzhong Li, Fukang Zhang, Zeying Jing, Fujie Yu & Yuan Chen

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  1. Qingzhong Li
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  2. Fukang Zhang
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Correspondence to Yuan Chen.

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Li, Q., Zhang, F., Jing, Z. et al. A Hybrid Territorial Aquatic Bionic Soft Robot with Controllable Transition Capability. J Bionic Eng 20, 568–583 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42235-022-00294-x

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