OpenFish: Biomimetic design of a soft robotic fish for high speed locomotion

Abstract

We present OpenFish: an open source soft robotic fish which is optimized for speed and efficiency. The soft robotic fish uses a combination of an active and passive tail segment to accurately mimic the thunniform swimming mode. Through the implementation of a novel propulsion system that is capable of achieving higher oscillation frequencies with a more sinusoidal waveform, the open source soft robotic fish achieves a top speed of 0.85m/s. Hereby, it outperforms the previously reported fastest soft robotic fish by 27%. Besides the propulsion system, the optimization of the fish morphology played a crucial role in achieving this speed. In this work, a detailed description of the design, construction and customization of the soft robotic fish is presented. Hereby, we hope this open source design will accelerate future research and developments in soft robotic fish.

Keywords

• Soft robotic fish
• Oscillating propulsion
• Marine robotics
• Biomimetics