Attitude control of a bio-inspired robotic fish with flexible pectoral fins
Date
2009
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Micro underwater vehicles (MUVs) have wide potential military,
scientific and commercial applications. They are especially suitable for exploring
dangerous and limited space. This thesis presents the development of a bio-inspired
MUV equipped with flexible fins and attitude measurement sensors. The pair of
flexible pectoral fins was driven by mini servo individually to mimic boxfish’s
pectoral fin motion. Two sensor fusion methods (Kalman filter based on quaternion
and Complementary filter based on Lie groups) was used to estimate robotic fish’s
rotational movement. A simplified dynamic model for the robot fish’s attitude control
was developed based on the theoretical analysis and experiment results. A linear PD
controller was designed to achieve the robot fish’s attitude stabilization in the roll axis
by controlling the flapping kinematics of the pectoral fins. Both simulation and
experiment results show convergence of roll angles in point-to-point control and
trajectory tracking of the desired motion.