ScaFi: Fish-like robot scales from 2 to nearly 10 feet without redesign
A new robotic fish design can scale in size while maintaining realistic swimming motion, offering potential for diverse aquatic applications.
A team of engineers has developed ScaFi, a robotic fish that can grow from 2 feet to nearly 10 feet in length while maintaining its fish-like swimming motion. Unlike traditional fish-inspired robots, which require complete redesigns for different sizes, ScaFi uses a scalable design that only changes the diameter of its fiberglass tail rods, keeping the rest of the mechanism consistent.
The robot features a rigid front section and a flexible tail made of fiberglass rods connected by a single motor and crossed tendons. This design allows the robot to mimic the S-shaped bending motion of real fish. The team built three versions of ScaFi, measuring 0.6 meters (2 feet), 1.1 meters (3.6 feet), and 2.9 meters (9.5 feet), and tested their performance in various environments, including shallow creeks, streams, and lakes.
Despite the size differences, the robots exhibited similar swimming kinematics when adjusted for body size. However, energy efficiency decreased with size, with the largest robot requiring a more powerful motor. The study also found that smaller robots were more agile but less stable, while larger ones were more stable but less nimble. The researchers suggest the design could be adapted for other compliant robots beyond aquatic environments.
ScaFi's scalable design represents a significant step forward in robotic adaptability, allowing a single mechanism to function across multiple sizes and environments. This could reduce development time and costs for aquatic monitoring and exploration. The focus on maintaining consistent motion while scaling highlights a key challenge in additive manufacturing and robotics: balancing form, function, and efficiency as systems grow in complexity.
Edited by the news editor with AI from the original report — please refer to the original source.