Bioinspired Smart Swimming Robots

REU Scholar: Andrew Haselton

REU Scholar Home Institution: University of Alabama

REU Mentor: Dr. Erik Engeberg

Soft Robotic Jellyfish: Design Optimization

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Building on the previous designs of soft robotic jellyfish utilizing tentacle actuators, a new design was developed to better emulate the locomotion of a jellyfish by utilizing a bell structure to manipulate the water rather than a flapping motion. This design reorients the existing actuators from a horizontal position to a vertical position to control the motion of a flexible bell, which expands and contracts to manipulate the water inside of it. The flexible bell is constructed out of three independent segments, each composing of flexible plastic ribs cast within a flexible skin, controlling the shape and motion of the bell. This design is able to produce net positive thrust, showing its ability to emulate jellyfish locomotion. These changes maintain the ability of the jellyfish design to operate around fragile aquatic environments such as coral reefs. Additionally, the control parameters of the actuators were optimized to find the optimal period and pulse width of the actuator control signal. It was found that peak thrust was achieved at a period of 6 seconds, with a pulse width of 2 seconds.