Evolutionary Design for High-Performance Robotic Fish: Optimizing Tailbeat Efficiency and Vertical Maneuverability 138 views

Current state-of-the-art underwater robotic swimmers are being used to help understand the physics of high-performance biological fish, such as tuna and dolphins. Additionally, studies are also considering the performance of fish schools and using these platforms to explore and emulate the key features that promote performance. These platforms are beginning to get close to reaching the speed and energetics of real fish and the focus of this study is to continue to evolve the platform design to improve swimming performance and swimming functionality. Specifically, results show that small changes in the tail actuation design of a tuna-like robot by increasing drive time led to significant improvements in thrust generation and efficiency. Speed increases of 6.5% and cost of transport reductions were found. Additionally, integrating a mass manipulation system to control center of mass into a high-performance swimming robot can be an effective method of actuating depth control. Increased mass manipulation speed affected an increasing pitch rate when paired with higher swimming speeds. These findings help to push the envelope forward and continue the pursuit of biological standards in robotic fish.

MS (Master of Science)

Bio-inspired; Robotics; Fish Robots; Centroid Manipulation; Tailbeat Optimization

English

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2025-12-03