A Snake Eel Inspired Multi-joint Underwater Inspection Robot for Undersea Infrastructure Intelligent Maintenance

Abstract

This paper introduces a bio-inspired multi-joint underwater inspection robot, which imitates the shape of a snake eel. It has high movement flexibility and passing ability inside complex structures, as a type of slim underwater swimming manipulators. Instead of bionic driving designs, the arrangement of propellers makes the robot highly stable in motion and competent for the inspection and intervention tasks of undersea infrastructure intelligent maintenance. The overall system design and the motion control approach of the robot are discussed, and the kinematics and dynamics models are analyzed. Based on modular design philosophy, a prototype of the robot has been developed and tested, and its feasibility and effectiveness has been verified through theoretical analysis, computer simulation, and underwater experiments