Modular design and initial gait study of an amphibian robotic turtle

Abstract

As another kind of the biomimetic underwater vehicles, a biologically inspired robotic turtle is studied and modeled. The modular design philosophy and construction of the prototype after a family of sea turtle - Cheloniidae is discussed. The dual-purpose robotic turtle is designed to imitate locomotion behaviors of Cheloniidae, both in water and on the land to achieve amphibian operations. Our motivation is to improve the design and performance of amphibian vehicles, which will have the reasonable speed and stable swimming ability like turtles. Studies have shown the high effectiveness of the turtle’s underwater locomotion, whose thrust generated by the flapping foil-like flippers. The crawling and lift-based swimming gaits are analyzed and implemented on the prototype. The platform is being developed for the testing to be conducted in outdoor real environment.