Development of a Penguin-Inspired Swimming Robot With Air Lubrication System

In this article, a novel robotic penguin equipped with air lubrication system is developed. Through mimicking the agile movements of biological penguins, two degrees of freedom (DOF) wings including heaving and pitching motions, and a buoyancy-driven system for ascending and diving are particularly designed. Meanwhile, a complete 3-D dynamic model is established based on the Morrison equation, and the hydrodynamic parameters are determined with experimental results. Then, taking the bioinspired central pattern generators as the main actuation, the 3-D locomotion performance is discussed. More importantly, inspired by the leaping behavior of penguins, a unique air lubrication system is developed, and the obtained results verify the effectiveness of the mechatronic design. This work will offer valuable insight into the future development and control of next-generation versatile underwater vehicles capitalizing on the air lubrication mechanism.