Modeling and control design of an anguilliform robotic fish

Abstract

In this paper, the modeling and control design of a biomimetic robotic fish is presented. The Anguilliform robotic fish consists of N links and N - 1 joints, and the driving forces are the torques applied to the joints. Considering kinematic constraints, Lagrangian formulation is used to obtain the dynamics of the fish model. The computed torque control method is applied first, which can provide satisfactory tracking responses for fish joints. Since this robotic fish is essentially an underactuated system, the reference trajectories for the orientation of the N links are planned in such a way that, at a neighborhood of the equilibrium point, the tracking task of N angles can be achieved by using N - 1 joint torques. To deal with parameter uncertainties that exist in the actual environment, sliding mode control is adopted. Considering feasibility and complexity issues, a simplified sliding mode control algorithm is given. A four-link robotic fish is modeled and simulated, and the results validate the effectiveness of reference planning and the proposed controllers. © 2012 World Scientific Publishing Company.