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Updated: Jul 25, 2025

Cardiac Muscle-cell Based Actuator and Self-stabilizing Biorobot - PART 1
Published on: July 11, 2017
Design, Modeling, and Control of an Aurelia-Inspired Robot Based on SMA Artificial Muscles
Yihan Yang1, Chenzhong Chu1, Hu Jin1
1CAS Key Laboratory of Mechanical Behavior and Design of Materials, Department of Precision Machinery and Precision Instrumentation, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
Abstract:
This paper presented a flexible and easily fabricated untethered underwater robot inspired by Aurelia, which is named "Au-robot". The Au-robot is actuated by six radial fins made of shape memory alloy (SMA) artificial muscle modules, which can realize pulse jet propulsion motion. The thrust model of the Au-robot's underwater motion is developed and analyzed. To achieve a multimodal and smooth swimming transition for the Au-robot, a control method integrating a central pattern generator (CPG) and an adaptive regulation (AR) heating strategy is provided. The experimental results demonstrate that the Au-robot, with good bionic properties in structure and movement mode, can achieve a smooth transition from low-frequency swimming to high-frequency swimming with an average maximum instantaneous velocity of 12.61 cm/s. It shows that a robot designed and fabricated with artificial muscle can imitate biological structures and movement traits more realistically and has better motor performance.
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