Dynamics of underwater legged locomotion: modeling and experiments on an octopus-inspired robot

This paper studies underwater legged locomotion (ULL) by means of a robotic octopus-inspired prototype and its associated model. Two different types of propulsive actions are embedded into the robot model: reaction forces due to leg contact with the ground and hydrodynamic forces such as the drag ar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bioinspiration & biomimetics 2015-08, Vol.10 (4), p.046012-15
Main Authors: Calisti, M, Corucci, F, Arienti, A, Laschi, C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biomimetics - instrumentation
Biomimetics - methods
Cob
Computer Simulation
Computer-Aided Design
Dynamics
Equipment Design
Equipment Failure Analysis
Extremities - physiology
Grounds
Immersion
legged locomotion
Legs
Locomotion
Marine
Models, Biological
Octopodiformes - physiology
octopus-inspired robots
Robotics
Robotics - instrumentation
Robotics - methods
Robots
Ships - instrumentation
soft robotics
Swimming - physiology
Underwater
underwater robots
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Summary:This paper studies underwater legged locomotion (ULL) by means of a robotic octopus-inspired prototype and its associated model. Two different types of propulsive actions are embedded into the robot model: reaction forces due to leg contact with the ground and hydrodynamic forces such as the drag arising from the sculling motion of the legs. Dynamic parameters of the model are estimated by means of evolutionary techniques and subsequently the model is exploited to highlight some distinctive features of ULL. Specifically, the separation between the center of buoyancy (CoB)/center of mass and density affect the stability and speed of the robot, whereas the sculling movements contribute to propelling the robot even when its legs are detached from the ground. The relevance of these effects is demonstrated through robotic experiments and model simulations; moreover, by slightly changing the position of the CoB in the presence of the same feed-forward activation, a number of different behaviors (i.e. forward and backward locomotion at different speeds) are achieved.
ISSN:1748-3190
1748-3182
1748-3190
DOI:10.1088/1748-3190/10/4/046012