1. Schematic of experimental setup and screen captures from swimming.
Schematic of experimental setup and screen captures from swimming. Top-down (A) and side (B) view schematics of the experimental setup. The robot comprised three FEDEA bimorph modules arranged end to end. The motion of the swimmer was planarized by suspending it from a rotating boom by the tubing connected to each actuator. The boom permitted the robot to swim at a fixed depth in a large arc, reducing the impact of lateral tube tension on the robot’s performance. (C to E) Top-down view of the actuator with time indicated. Inset diagram is a top-down schematic describing which of the six DEAs are at rest (“off”) or actuated (“on”) in that frame. We cycled through the three states shown at a rate of 0.33 Hz, resulting in an average forward speed of 1.9 mm s−1. Scale bar, 5 cm.
Caleb Christianson et al. Sci. Robotics 2018;3:eaat1893
Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works