Improving Swimming Performance in Soft Robotic Fish with Distributed Muscles and Embedded Kinematic Sensing
Kevin Soto, Isabel Hess, Brandon Schrader, Shan He, Patrick Musgrave · arXiv · 2025
This study presents a soft robotic fish design that enhances swimming performance through independently controllable muscles and embedded kinematic sensing.
Plain English summary
Why this matters
Key findings
- The soft robotic fish generates a maximum thrust of 7.9 mN at its first resonant frequency.
- Synchronized muscle actuation at the second resonant frequency produces 5.0 mN of thrust, which can be increased to 7.2 mN with phase offset.
- Sequential muscle activation improves tail-beat velocity and swimming kinematics by four times.
- Higher resonant frequencies allow for effective swimming in confined spaces with reduced tail displacement.
- The design integrates distributed kinematic sensing for enhanced control.
What's new
The integration of independently controllable muscles and embedded kinematic sensing in a soft robotic fish design is a novel approach to improving swimming performance.
Limitations
The abstract does not discuss the long-term durability of the materials used or the practical applications of the robotic fish in real-world scenarios.
Commercial context
The research is still in the laboratory phase and has not yet been commercialized.
Publication
- Publisher
- arXiv
- Publication date
- April 15, 2025
- Research type
- Preprint
- arXiv
- 2504.11377
- Access
- open
Tags
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