Development of Biomimetic Soft Underwater Robot

Abstract

In recent years, Dielectric Elastomer Actuators (DEAs) are attracting attention as excellent artificial muscles. We have developed a driving module that has a large deformation capability by using DEAs. The driving module is in the shape of a tube and forms an antagonistic configuration through electrode pattern. We observed that the maximum bending angle was 24.9° and the generated force at maximum bending angle was 73.8 mN with the experimental results. We have developed an underwater robot using this driving module. The peak swimming speed of the robot was 43.7 mm/s (0.16 body length/s) at 1.5 Hz. From these results, the possibility of adapting the tubular driving module to the soft underwater robot was shown.