What influence can marine life have on robotics? This is what a recent study published in Science Advances hopes to address as a team of researchers from the University of Virginia and North Carolina State University have developed the fastest swimming soft robot by taking cues from manta ray fins. This study holds the potential to help researchers, engineers, and scientists develop faster and more efficient swimming soft robots that can be used for a variety of purposes worldwide.
This study builds on a 2022 study conducted by this same team of researchers that explored swimming soft robots that exhibited butterfly strokes, achieving a then-record of 3.74 body lengths per second, along with demonstrating high power efficiency, low energy use, and high maneuverability. For this new study, the researchers developed fins used by manta rays with the goal of achieving greater results than before. The fins are flexible when not in use but become rigid when the researchers pumped air into the silicone body that encompasses the soft robot.
In the end, the researchers not only achieved low energy use and maneuverability, but also broke their own record of body lengths per second at 6.8. Additionally, the manta ray-inspired swimming soft robot was able to avoid obstacles, which was an improvement from their 2022 study.
“This is a highly engineered design, but the fundamental concepts are fairly simple,” said Dr. Jie Yin, who is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at North Carolina State University and a co-author on the study. “And with only a single actuation input, our robot can navigate a complex vertical environment. We are now working on improving lateral movement, and exploring other modes of actuation, which will significantly enhance this system’s capabilities. Our goal is to do this with a design that retains that elegant simplicity.”
Development of swimming soft robots has become recent fixtures in the scientific and engineering communities over the past few years due to their potential applications in underwater exploration, environmental monitoring, rescue operations, maintenance, and fisheries management. Examples of swimming soft robots’ attributes include intermeshed claws, smart materials, and sensor skins that will only continue to further develop in the future.
What new advancements in swimming soft robots will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Science Advances, Science Advances (1), EurekAlert!, Built In
Featured Image Credit: Haitao Qing, North Carolina State University
