Design and Kinetic Analysis of a Biomimetic Underwater Vehicle with Two Undulating Long-fins

A biomimetic underwater vehicle propelled by two undulating long-fins is introduced in this paper. The concerned vehicle is propelled by two symmetrical undulating long-fins installed on both sides. Ten servo motors are employed to drive the long-fins and cosine wave function is employed for motor control. A real-time control system is designed for controlling the long-fins by adjusting its oscillating frequency and oscillating amplitude. An inertial measurement unit is installed to collect the accelerations and angular velocity. To obtain the relationship between oscillating frequency/amplitude and swimming performance, kinematic analysis and hydromechanic analysis are given. By dividing the long-fin into many small elements and computing the hydrodynamic force acting on each element, the instantaneous thrust generated by the long-fin is obtained. Then the average thrust of the long-fin is obtained by summing up the forces acted on the elements in one undulating period. Then swimming experiments are carried out to validate the vehicle design and kinematic analysis and hydromechanic analysis. And two swimming motion modes including marching and rotating locomotion are chosen. Finally, discussions between the swimming performance and the oscillating parameters are given.