Design and implementation of a robotic dolphin for water quality monitoring

Abstract

This paper presents a novel mechanical design and multimodal locomotion control of a bio-inspired robotic dolphin for water quality monitoring. In order to obtain a better hydrodynamic performance, a robotic dolphin modelled after killer whale is developed. Depending on its powerful propulsive posterior body and fluke, the robotic dolphin can realize fast and flexible dolphin-like swimming. Moreover, a pair of pectoral fins with separate degree of freedom and a yawing dorsal fin are designed for turning maneuvers. Besides, many onboard sensors including an inertial navigation system, GPS, a depth sensor, infrared sensors and a replaceable water quality multiprobe are employed to implement autonomous water monitoring task. As for the control level, a Central Pattern Generators (CPGs) -based controller is utilized to realize multimodal locomotion including forward swimming, turning, diving and surfacing. Finally, both extensive experiments and field testing demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed bio-inspired water quality monitoring system.