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soft robot fish

21.03.2014

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have demonstrated a prototype of a soft robotic fish that moves in the water like a real individual. Soft robots, which have a body made of silicone and move due to the movement of liquid (or gas) in the channels inside the body, have become quite a popular area of research. News about advances in this area is dedicated to the new magazine Soft Robotics (Soft robots).

In the first issue of Soft Robotics, published this month, an article about the invention of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was published. The first robotic fish prototype was created by a team of researchers including Professor Daniela Rus, graduate student Andrew Marchese, and researcher Cagdas D. Onal.

The movement of the torso of the robotic fish is provided by the batch release of carbon dioxide from a container located in the abdominal cavity. The passage of gas through the channels on one side of the body of the robot causes the body to contract and the tail to bend in the opposite direction. The robot has complete autonomy. Thanks to its design features, it is able to rotate 100 degrees in a fraction of a second.

Each of the "fish tail" halves has only two parameters for control - the diameter of the nozzle through which the gas is released into the channel, and the length of time during which it is open. Rus argues that the angle of the tail bend depends on the duration of the gassing, and the speed of the robot is determined by the diameter of the nozzle. This, Rus says, is reminiscent of the demarcation observed by biologists in real fish.

The robot fish is capable of performing 20-30 maneuvers, depending on the angle of the tail bend and the speed of movement, before the carbon dioxide supply is exhausted. "The robot is designed to evaluate performance and is not designed to work for a long time," said Daniela Rus. "The next step will be to create a device based on the current system with a longer period of work in combination with current productivity."

In the future, it is planned to replace carbon dioxide in the robot's movement system with water. By the way, some parts of the robot fish are made using a 3D printer.

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