A New Jellyfish Type of Underwater Microrobot

Abstract

In the medical field and industry application, fishlike microrobot and micro biped robot with multi DOF that can swim smoothly in water or aqueous medium has urgently been demanded. And IPMC (ionic polymer metal composite) can generate large bending motions under a low driving voltage (about 1 V), and it has a good response and soft characteristic. In this paper, we have developed a new jellyfish type of microrobot which can imitate the jellyfish. It has a movement process as the jellyfish does when it is floating and sinking. The process of floating and sinking can be controlled. Four legs using IPMC actuators are designed to replace the antennae of the jellyfish. Characteristic of the underwater microrobot is measured. Some improvement has been done for higher efficiency. The experimental results indicate that the moving and swimming speed of underwater microrobot can be controlled by changing the frequency of input voltage.