Development of an Educational Fish-like 1-DOF Gliding Locomotion Robot with Passive Wheels

Abstract

This paper proposes an 1-DOF gliding locomotion robot named “Gyotaro-IIIa” as an educational robot. Gliding locomotion is one of propulsion method, which utilizes the difference of friction between the normal direction and tangential direction. Since this propulsion has interesting features in both physical aspect and engineering aspect, we think that gliding locomotion robot can be a good stimulus of student's curiosity for engineering. We developed a prototype of gliding locomotion robot with one RC servo motor, radio controller and receiver. Finally we used it in a robot lecture which aimed to bridge a classroom lecture and a hands-on experience in order to promote science education.