Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
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FIGURE 9.6
An illustrative design of robotic fish.
FIGURE 9.7
A robotic fish equipped with a single IPMNC tail fin.
of actuators at a time and then the consequent pairs downstream, one can produce
a propagating or traveling wave downstream on each side of the fish. This will
produce a sting-ray type of motion, which propels the swimming structure forward.
The middle terminals or spines act as conductors that connect the signal generator
outputs in the head assembly to each actuator in the tail or wing assembly.
By varying the frequency of the applied voltage, the speed of muscle-bending
oscillation of the membranes
A
and, therefore, propulsion of the swimming structure
F
can be modulated. In this manner, robotic swimming fishes and submarine struc-
tures containing a sealed signal and power-generating module in the head assembly
can be made to swim at various depths by varying the buoyancy of the structure by
conventional means. Remote commands via radio signals can then be sent to mod-
ulate propulsion speed and buoyancy.
In figure 9.7, another robotic fish design is presented. This robotic fish, equipped
with a tail fin made from a single piece of IPMNC material, has demonstrated that
such a structure is feasible for mimicking biological fish locomotion. Furthermore,
the noiseless propulsion is attractive in nature. A maximum speed of approximately
2 m/min was achieved under an applied voltage of 2 V.
