Elastic-Snapping–Driven Butterfly Stroke: A Soft Robotic Fish Article Swipe
Tian Lin
,
Yu Zhao
,
Zhipeng Wang
,
Jiao Jia
,
Weifeng Yuan
,
Xi‐Qiao Feng
·
YOU?
·
· 2025
· Open Access
·
· DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/machines13121078
YOU?
·
· 2025
· Open Access
·
· DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/machines13121078
The locomotion of fish provides inspiration for designing efficient and agile underwater robots. Potamotrygon motoro propels itself by generating traveling waves along its pectoral fins. Inspired by its graceful swimming stroke, we design and fabricate a robotic fish, where the snap-through instability of elastic curved rods is exploited to produce the undulatory fin motion. In this design, the rotary input of two motors is transformed smoothly and continuously to controllable wave-like fin deformation. By changing the initial fin shape, motor speed, and friction at the releasing end, the propulsion performance and the maneuverability of the robotic fish can be significantly improved. The physical prototype of the robotic fish is fabricated, and its swimming performance is measured. Its maximum swimming speed reaches 0.76 BL/s, and it can achieve small-radius turns with a maximum angular speed of 1.25 rad/s. In contrast to the multi-actuator systems, the proposed dual-motor, elastic-snapping–driven design is featured by simple structural construction, low energy consumption, excellent maneuverability, and superb adaptation to environments. Our robotic fish holds promising applications in such areas as environmental monitoring, underwater inspection, and ocean exploration. The propulsion strategy presented in this work may pave a new way for the design of shape-morphing robots as well as other soft machines at multiple length scales.
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Metadata
- Type
- article
- Language
- en
- Landing Page
- https://doi.org/10.3390/machines13121078
- https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1702/13/12/1078/pdf?version=1763992232
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All OpenAlex metadata
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https://openalex.org/W4416730578Canonical identifier for this work in OpenAlex
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https://doi.org/10.3390/machines13121078Digital Object Identifier
- Title
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Elastic-Snapping–Driven Butterfly Stroke: A Soft Robotic FishWork title
- Type
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articleOpenAlex work type
- Language
-
enPrimary language
- Publication year
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2025Year of publication
- Publication date
-
2025-11-24Full publication date if available
- Authors
-
Tian Lin, Yu Zhao, Zhipeng Wang, Jiao Jia, Weifeng Yuan, Xi‐Qiao FengList of authors in order
- Landing page
-
https://doi.org/10.3390/machines13121078Publisher landing page
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https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1702/13/12/1078/pdf?version=1763992232Direct link to full text PDF
- Open access
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YesWhether a free full text is available
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goldOpen access status per OpenAlex
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https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1702/13/12/1078/pdf?version=1763992232Direct OA link when available
- Cited by
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0Total citation count in OpenAlex
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