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Jelly-Z: swimming performance and analysis of twisted and coiled polymer (TCP) actuated jellyfish soft robot.
Matharu, Pawandeep Singh; Gong, Pengyao; Guntaka, Koti Pramod Reddy; Almubarak, Yara; Jin, Yaqing; Tadesse, Yonas T.
Affiliation
  • Matharu PS; Humanoid, Biorobotics and Smart Systems Laboratory (HBS Lab), Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, 75080, USA.
  • Gong P; Fluids, Turbulence Control and Renewable Energy Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, 75080, USA.
  • Guntaka KPR; SoRobotics Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, 48202, USA.
  • Almubarak Y; SoRobotics Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, 48202, USA.
  • Jin Y; Fluids, Turbulence Control and Renewable Energy Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, 75080, USA.
  • Tadesse YT; Humanoid, Biorobotics and Smart Systems Laboratory (HBS Lab), Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, 75080, USA. yonas.tadesse@utdallas.edu.
Sci Rep ; 13(1): 11086, 2023 Jul 08.
Article in En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37422482
Monitoring, sensing, and exploration of over 70% of the Earth's surface that is covered with water is permitted through the deployment of underwater bioinspired robots without affecting the natural habitat. To create a soft robot actuated with soft polymeric actuators, this paper describes the development of a lightweight jellyfish-inspired swimming robot, which achieves a maximum vertical swimming speed of 7.3 mm/s (0.05 body length/s) and is characterized by a simple design. The robot, named Jelly-Z, utilizes a contraction-expansion mechanism for swimming similar to the motion of a Moon jellyfish. The objective of this paper is to understand the behavior of soft silicone structure actuated by novel self-coiled polymer muscles in an underwater environment by varying stimuli and investigate the associated vortex for swimming like a jellyfish. To better understand the characteristics of this motion, simplified Fluid-structure simulation, and particle image velocimetry (PIV) tests were conducted to study the wake structure from the robot's bell margin. The thrust generated by the robot was also characterized with a force sensor to ascertain the force and cost of transport (COT) at different input currents. Jelly-Z is the first robot that utilized twisted and coiled polymer fishing line (TCPFL) actuators for articulation of the bell and showed successful swimming operations. Here, a thorough investigation on swimming characteristics in an underwater setting is presented theoretically and experimentally. We found swimming metrics of the robot are comparable with other jellyfish-inspired robots that have utilized different actuation mechanisms, but the actuators used here are scalable and can be made in-house relatively easily, hence paving way for further advancements into the use of these actuators.
Subject(s)

Full text: 1 Collection: 01-internacional Database: MEDLINE Main subject: Robotics / Scyphozoa Limits: Animals Language: En Journal: Sci Rep Year: 2023 Document type: Article Affiliation country: Country of publication:

Full text: 1 Collection: 01-internacional Database: MEDLINE Main subject: Robotics / Scyphozoa Limits: Animals Language: En Journal: Sci Rep Year: 2023 Document type: Article Affiliation country: Country of publication: