Design, Fabrication and Experiment of a Bionic Manta Ray Robot Fish

Abstract

This paper introduces a bionic manta ray robot fish with its design, fabrication and experiment. Manta rays have many advantages rely on flexible pectoral fin propulsion, such as maneuverability and low noise. Inspired by motion characteristics and structural characteristics of manta rays, a novel flexible passive stereo bionic pectoral fin is designed to provide driving force and moment for bionic robot fish. Moreover, factors on section shape and stiffness distribution are considered for the bionic pectoral fin. The overall structure is designed and fabricated for the bionic manta ray robot fish prototype, which has a pair of pectoral fins and a caudal fin. Finally, swimming experiments show the bionic manta ray robot fish has strong locomotion ability.