STUDY OF PROPULSION MECHANISM AND CONTROL OF A MANTA RAY INSPIRED ROBOT

HSU EN-CHI EMMANUEL

Publication

STUDY OF PROPULSION MECHANISM AND CONTROL OF A MANTA RAY INSPIRED ROBOT

HSU EN-CHI EMMANUEL

Abstract

The MantaDroid is a bioinspired manta ray robot under development at NUS. It has a flat planar body shape and a pair of large pectoral fins with which thrust is generated. Unlike a real manta ray's muscular fins, the MantaDroid's pectoral fins possess only a single degree of freedom allowing them to flap up and down from the root with the fins deforming passively under hydrodynamic loads experienced during the flapping cycles. The robot also possesses a pair of smaller pelvic fins located on the rear. The first part of the present work investigated the effects of several design parameters on the performance of the pectoral fin propulsion system through experiments in a water channel. The second part investigated the feasibility of manoeuvring the manta ray robot with its limited control surfaces and degrees of freedom. For this, experiments were conducted in a swimming pool and in a water channel.