Elastic Pectoral Fin Actuators for Biomimetic Underwater Vehicle

This paper describes the developments of new pectoral fins made of elastic materials with the functions of flexibility and multifunctionality for biomimetic underwater vehicles to use as not only a propulsive device, but also other applications such as grippers, avoiding damages to environment by rigid fins. We developed two types of elastic pectoral fins, an actively controlled pneumatic fin and a passively controlled flexible fin in this study. We carried out the verification tests for generating the propulsive forces and FEM analyses of the behaviors of two elastic pectoral fins.