Undulatory tadpole robot (TadRob) using ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) actuator

Abstract

We have developed the wireless tadpole robot that has simple geometry, driven by low voltage and the undulatory fin-motion using IPMC(Ionic Polymer Metal Composite) actuator. Behavior of TadRob is tested and analyzed under various frequencies(1/spl sim/8 Hz) to find the correlation between actuator frequency and velocity of the robot. In addition, the robot velocity based on undulation motion and oscillation motion of the fin is compared to find the proper fin-motion in the viewpoint of. velocity efficiency for the robot. Also, steering capability is tested under variation of duty ratio. Based on experimental results, we can confirm that the velocity of TadRob can be controlled by changing frequency of input voltage and the steering angle can be increased with increasing the duty ratio.