Towards development of a slider-crank centered self-propelled dolphin robot

This paper is devoted to the mechatronic design and implementation of a dolphin-like robot capable of fast swimming. In the context of multiple coordinated control surfaces, a set of serially connected flapping modules is responsible for dorsoventral oscillations, an internal moving slider for pitch control and a yaw joint for lateral turns. To improve the swimming speed, an updated modular slider-crank-based flapping mechanism that fully capitalizes on the continuous high-speed rotation of the DC motor is proposed and constructed. With the proposed mechanisms, the resulting dolphin robot achieved a high level of propulsive speed, largely illustrating the validity of the present design scheme.