Simulation of the motion of a propellerless mobile robot controlled by rotation of the internal rotor

Abstract

We consider a propellerless robot that moves on the surface of a fluid by rotating of the internal rotor. The robot shell has a symmetric shape of NACA 0040 airfoil. The equations of motion are written in the form of classical Kirchhoff equations with terms describing the viscous friction. The control action based on the derived model is proposed. The influences of various model parameters on the robot's trajectory have been studied.