Locomotion and depth control of robotic fish with modular undulating fins

This paper presents an environmental-friendly robotic system mimicking the undulating fins of a fish. To mimic the actual flexible fin of real fish, a fin-like mechanism with a series of connecting linkages is modeled and attached to the robotic fish, by virtue of a specially designed strip. Each link is able to turn and slide with respect to the adjacent link. These driving linkages are then used to form a mechanical fin consisting of several fin segments, which are able to produce undulations, similar to those produced by the actual fish fins. Owing to the modular and re-configurable design of the mechanical fin, we are able to construct biomimetic robotic fish with various swimming modes by fin undulations. Some qualitative and workspace observations by experiments of the robotic fish are shown and discussed.