A jellyfish-like swimming mini-robot actuated by an electromagnetic actuation system

Abstract

Among the various kinds of actuations for biomimetic robots, the electromagnetic actuation (EMA) method has been regarded as the one with the most potential. This paper proposes a jellyfish-like swimming mini-robot actuated by an EMA system in three-dimensional (3D) space. The jellyfish-like mini-robot has four flexible fins, each of which is equipped with a permanent magnet for electromagnetic actuation; the robot's body is 17 mm long and 0.5 mm thick. Our EMA system was able to generate a uniform magnetic field in a desired direction in 3D space, which could bend the fins of the jellyfish-like mini-robot. Therefore, a cyclic change in the uniform magnetic field, in the EMA system, would synchronize the fluctuation of the fins and could generate a propulsion force for the robot, in the desired direction. In order to maximize the propulsion force of the jellyfish-like mini-robot, the waveform and frequency of the input current in the EMA system are optimized. Consequently, our jellyfish-like mini-robot was able to generate maximum propulsion force when a square waveform input current (13 A magnitude and 10 Hz frequency) was applied to the EMA system. Finally, the jellyfish-like mini-robot with the EMA system was able to perform various 3D swimming motions.