Modern Control Engineering
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This article illustrates the development and motion verification of a swimming, anguilliform robot whose goal is to imitate the motion described by the wakeless swimming theory derived in Vorus and Taravella (2011) and to provide a proof of concept and knowledge for the next robotic design revision which will be used for experimental validation (or invalidation) of the theory. The concept design was initially open-ended with the only constraints being the length, cross section, and the theoretical shape function to be attained. Various component options were researched and decided upon for each aspect of the robot's design such as the waterproofing skin, flexible joint assembly, motion actuators, motion control, power source, wiring, and material properties of the robot's supporting structure. In parallel, a tethered testing apparatus was designed around the robot for it to be attached to a marine testing facility's tow tank carriage. While tethered to the testing mechanism, the NEELBOT-1.0's underwater swimming motion was measured with image processing software. This image processing analysis has been very successful in comparing the robot's motion to that proposed by the theory, and the mathematical method of the image processing program is explained within. The results of the analysis have quantitatively described the slight errors in the motion and what is needed to improve the results. This initial robotic design and motion measuring method have been proven to be very successful up to this stage in the project, and the current measuring method will be continued. Future design improvements for the robot for hydrodynamic testing of the wakeless swimming theory will also be discussed.