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Main Authors: Blankenship, Elijah K., Trygstad, Conor K., Gonçalves, Francisco M. F. R., Pérez-Arancibia, Néstor O.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.07073
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author Blankenship, Elijah K.
Trygstad, Conor K.
Gonçalves, Francisco M. F. R.
Pérez-Arancibia, Néstor O.
author_facet Blankenship, Elijah K.
Trygstad, Conor K.
Gonçalves, Francisco M. F. R.
Pérez-Arancibia, Néstor O.
contents This paper presents the VLEIBot^* (Very Little Eel-Inspired roBot), a 45-mg/23-mm^3 microrobotic swimmer that is propelled by a bioinspired anguilliform propulsor. The propulsor is excited by a single 6-mg high-work-density (HWD) microactuator and undulates periodically due to wave propagation phenomena generated by fluid-structure interaction (FSI) during swimming. The microactuator is composed of a carbon-fiber beam, which functions as a leaf spring, and shape-memory alloy (SMA) wires, which deform cyclically when excited periodically using Joule heating. The VLEIBot can swim at speeds as high as 15.1mm * s^{-1} (0.33 Bl * s^{-1}}) when driven with a heuristically-optimized propulsor. To improve maneuverability, we evolved the VLEIBot design into the 90-mg/47-mm^3 VLEIBot^+, which is driven by two propulsors and fully controllable in the two-dimensional (2D) space. The VLEIBot^+ can swim at speeds as high as 16.1mm * s^{-1} (0.35 Bl * s^{-1}), when driven with heuristically-optimized propulsors, and achieves turning rates as high as 0.28 rad * s^{-1}, when tracking path references. The measured root-mean-square (RMS) values of the tracking errors are as low as 4 mm.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_07073
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle VLEIBot: A New 45-mg Swimming Microrobot Driven by a Bioinspired Anguilliform Propulsor
Blankenship, Elijah K.
Trygstad, Conor K.
Gonçalves, Francisco M. F. R.
Pérez-Arancibia, Néstor O.
Systems and Control
Robotics
This paper presents the VLEIBot^* (Very Little Eel-Inspired roBot), a 45-mg/23-mm^3 microrobotic swimmer that is propelled by a bioinspired anguilliform propulsor. The propulsor is excited by a single 6-mg high-work-density (HWD) microactuator and undulates periodically due to wave propagation phenomena generated by fluid-structure interaction (FSI) during swimming. The microactuator is composed of a carbon-fiber beam, which functions as a leaf spring, and shape-memory alloy (SMA) wires, which deform cyclically when excited periodically using Joule heating. The VLEIBot can swim at speeds as high as 15.1mm * s^{-1} (0.33 Bl * s^{-1}}) when driven with a heuristically-optimized propulsor. To improve maneuverability, we evolved the VLEIBot design into the 90-mg/47-mm^3 VLEIBot^+, which is driven by two propulsors and fully controllable in the two-dimensional (2D) space. The VLEIBot^+ can swim at speeds as high as 16.1mm * s^{-1} (0.35 Bl * s^{-1}), when driven with heuristically-optimized propulsors, and achieves turning rates as high as 0.28 rad * s^{-1}, when tracking path references. The measured root-mean-square (RMS) values of the tracking errors are as low as 4 mm.
title VLEIBot: A New 45-mg Swimming Microrobot Driven by a Bioinspired Anguilliform Propulsor
topic Systems and Control
Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.07073