Dynamic Analysis of a Biomimetic Robotic Fish with Flexible Tail

The main scope of this article is to propose a virtualplatform for dynamic analysis of a biomimetic roboticfish with flexible tail employing bond graph approach.The proposed model for the robotic fish prototype underinvestigation is composed of a rigid part and a flexibletail. The oscillating frequency of the tail controls theforward velocity, and the body spline offset parametercontrols the heading angle during swimming of therobot. The actuator, electrical and control circuits andsensors are encapsulated in the sealed rigid encasement.Dynamic model corresponding to the robotic fish underinvestigation was developed employing bond graphapproach. To perform simulation study, thecorresponding bond graph model was implementedutilizing 20-Sim software. Simulation results werequantitively compared and verified by the equivalentmodel of the robotic fish developed employing Sim-Mechanics Toolbox of MATLAB software. There isvery good agreement with small differences between thetwo proposed models. It was proved that the proposedmodels are suitable to predict the dynamic behavior ofthe robotic fish with flexible tail and very good virtualplatform to design, implement and evaluate theperformance of various control algorithm.

Dynamic Analysis of a Biomimetic Robotic Fish with Flexible Tail Keywords:

dynamics , bond graph , biomimetic , roboticfish , flexible