Development of a New Manta Robot Considering the Propulsive Resistance
Keywords:
Manta robot, autonomous underwater vehicle, propulsive resistance, 3D point cloudAbstract
In recent years, biological research of an aquatic life is carried out actively. The sea is a dangerous environment for humans, so that we cannot investigate an aquatic life for a long period of time. In addition, conventional underwater robots have a common mechanism for propulsion with screw propellers. Noises generated by screw propellers have a possibility of giving a bad effect on the biological behavior. On the other hand, biomimetic robots can investigate aquatic lives without affecting them significantly. Our laboratory has developed a Manta robot that has propulsion mechanisms with pectoral fins, mimickingthe pectoral fin of the manta ray. Conventional Manta robots have a problem that its swimming speed is insufficient for investigating aquatic lives. In this paper, we develop an autonomous Manta robot that is excellent in the propulsion performance by taking account of propulsion resistance caused by the body shape. Several experiments are conducted to show the effectiveness of the proposed method, in the point of the swimming speed and propulsive efficiency.
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