Design and experimental research on an undulatory robotic fin

Abstract

We present experimental velocity, propulsion force and power measurements finding out that the significance level of shape and kinematics parameters of robotic fin to its propulsion performance. The data have been obtained through synchronous velocity, propulsive force and the power measurements on an undulatory robotic fin mechanism, at the Reynolds numbers 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">6</sup> . The lateral motion of the robotic fin is in the form of a travelling wave, the kinematics parameters we investigated are frequency, amplitude, wavelength and envelope line. According to the data of velocity, propulsive force and the power measurements, the propulsion efficiency can be conducted. The experimental result indicates that the velocity, propulsive force and propulsion efficiency is optimum with the fin shape is isosceles trapezoid, the frequency and amplitude of fluctuation is 1.67Hz and 100 mm respectively. The optimization result is meaningful for the mechanical design of undulatory fin propulsion.