Eel-like robot to assist divers

Due to superior flexibility of Anguilliform fishes, scientists in Singapore developed a prototype of an eel-like robotic fish to allow marine forces to reach such areas which are much difficult or impossible for the divers to reach.

The Anguilliform robotic fish is small, sophisticated and elegant enough to operate autonomously underwater.


"We performed simulations and experiments on the robotic fish, equipped with a motion library to cope with different scenarios, and the results validate the effectiveness of the proposed controllers as it was able to swim forward and backward as predicted," said Jianxin Xu from the National University of Singapore and co-author of the project.
The robotic fish is designed to move in either direction as well as to turnaround through different points.
The device is driven by 3D oscillators, an artificial neural network and an outer amplitude modulator.
The robotic fish is designed to move forward and backward, as well as turnaround through different reference inputs.


To achieve the swimming pattern of a real Anguilliform fish, a new version of core pattern generator model was presented which successfully replicated in the robotic model.



A snake-like form also gives the Anguilliform robot amphibious potential, due to the similarity in undulatory locomotion in water and on solid ground.