文档介绍：Mechanism and Machine Theory 44 (2009) 633–645
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Mechanism and Machine Theory
journal homepage: ate/mechmt
Biological inspirations, kinematics modeling, mechanism design and
experiments on an undulating robotic fin inspired by Gymnarchus niloticus
Tianjiang Hu *, Lincheng Shen, Longxin Lin, Haijun Xu
Intelligent Robotics and Biomimetics Center, College of Mechatronic Engineering and Automation, National University of Defense Technology,
Changsha 410073, China
article info abstract
Article history: This paper suggests and then presents a whole procedure of biomimetics with a case study
Received 28 October 2007 starting from amiiform fish (Gymnarchus niloticus) to an undulating robotic fin. The proce-
Received in revised form 28 August 2008 dure includes biological observation, kinematics modeling, mechanism design, prototype
Accepted 29 August 2008
implementation, and initial experiments. To investigate undulatory median fin propulsion
Available online 4 November 2008
and its potential for applications in man-made underwater vehicles, a motor-driven fin
actuator, RoboGnilos, has been developed with inspirations from G. niloticus, which gener-
ally swims by undulations of a long flexible dorsal fin. In the kinematics modeling, the
Keywords:
ruled surface based model is proposed to describe the undulation characteristics and used
Biomimetics
Undulating robotic fin as a guide for the biomimetic mechanism design and implementation. Next, a modular
Gymnarchus niloticus independent motor-driven mechanism is adopted to implement the undulating prototype
Kinematics modeling fin by virtue of reconfigurable features. Finally, initial experiments have been carried out to
Mechanism design analyse how undulation dynamics is affected with the morphological parameters (., the
Undulatory propulsion experiments asymmetry of waveforms, the fin surface material, and the fin ray length) and the undula-
tory parameters (i