Author Topic: my robot fish, revealed! (Read 17959 times)

Admin · « **on:** April 16, 2007, 01:32:40 PM »

For almost two years now Ive been asking weird questions on the forum to get help for my big robot fish project. But unfortunately, being a government project, I wasn't allowed to reveal the details . . . until now!

I wrote up a big 8 page science paper on it, and submitted it to ICRA (International Conference on Robotics and Automation). In all, ICRA recieved 1800 papers covering all types of robotics research.

Yet despite this being the first paper I ever wrote, out of that 1800 papers it was given the 'Best Conference Paper Award' - so its bound to be a good read

Without further introduction, here it is (800kb):
http://www.societyofrobots.com/robottheory/Design_of_a_Biomimetic_Controlled-Curvature_Robotic_Pectoral_Fin.pdf

Now after looking at all the pictures you may be asking something like, 'well, where is the fish part?'

Well . . . its going to be made public when I publish the next paper on it at the end of this year

I guess this now gives me some official credibility in robotics now

. . . and shows that the CMU Robotics Institute made a huge mistake in rejecting me

ed1380 · « **Reply #1 on:** April 16, 2007, 01:38:42 PM »

the design of the fin looks cool. I only wish I understood more of that

JonHylands · « **Reply #2 on:** April 16, 2007, 03:45:50 PM »

Wow, just finished the paper - I am really impressed !

I wonder how a flexible articulated tail fin like that would do... I think you would need the articulation on a different axis, but it may be that being able to independently articulate the top and bottom of the fin from the center would produce more thrust.

Very cool stuff, can't wait to see the finished AUV...

- Jon

sdk32285 · « **Reply #3 on:** April 16, 2007, 08:43:31 PM »

Cool paper

Congrats on becoming published!

nanob0t · « **Reply #4 on:** April 17, 2007, 11:11:57 AM »

That is insanely wicked. It's a pretty neat concept, I only wish I could get into stuff like that right now. Unfortunately, I'm 16 and the most that a program can offer is playing with LEGO mindstorms, which I own too much at. I had that at like 10.

It's a very good paper. I hope to do stuff like this in the future, I'm interested in seeing the next paper.

Quote from: Admin on April 16, 2007, 01:32:40 PM

Yet despite this being the first paper I ever wrote, out of that 1800 papers it was given the 'Best Conference Paper Award' - so its bound to be a good read

Very nice job.

Quote from: Admin on April 16, 2007, 01:32:40 PM

. . . and shows that the CMU Robotics Institute made a huge mistake in rejecting me

I bet!

Admin · « **Reply #5 on:** August 19, 2007, 06:46:14 PM »

Part 2 of our robot fish project has been published.

The first paper was designing and studying a robot fin. This paper however covers how to control a vehicle with flapping fins. Unlike with traditional propellor thrusters that give predictable steady thrust in a single direction, flapping fins gives crazy thrusts in many different directions. No one has ever figured out how to control a UUV (unmanned underwater vehicle) with pectoral fins that can change shape, until now.

I wouldnt say its a 100% solved problem, but its definitely an advancement.

Warning - being a controls paper, it is heavy in math and derivation. But being a 2nd author on the paper I can promise you nice CAD models of the design and my own personal touch.

http://www.societyofrobots.com/robottheory/Modeling_and_Control_of_Pectoral_Fin_Propelled_UUV.pdf

I am currently in New Hampshire presenting the paper with two of my collegues for the next few days.

Unmanned Untethered Submersible Technology Symposium
http://www.ausi.org/uust/uust.html

Ill take videos and report for everyone

The next paper will be the finished product . . . probably another 6 months or so of research . . .

In other news, we are now competing (and working) with MIT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6924057.stm
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/robofin-0730.html

They take a completely different approach than us, but still interesting . . .

mpeg2tom · « **Reply #6 on:** August 20, 2007, 10:26:38 AM »

Looks cool! You should check out some of pretty robo fish done by artist U-Ram Choe...

http://www.uram.net/english/portfolio_new/portfolio3rd_05.htm

JesseWelling · « **Reply #7 on:** August 20, 2007, 10:40:27 AM »

Isn't it kinda crazy that is seems controllable with PID?
I would have thought some crazy calculus + fuzzy logic would be optimal...
I guess that's why I'm putting in my apprenticeship (so to speak) in a control oriented field

Hal9000 · « **Reply #8 on:** August 20, 2007, 11:37:26 AM »

I'm glad you got it finished and such! Looks really good. well done!

Admin · « **Reply #9 on:** August 20, 2007, 11:38:07 AM »

Quote

Isn't it kinda crazy that is seems controllable with PID?
I would have thought some crazy calculus + fuzzy logic would be optimal...

Actually, you are right. The CFD does use crazy calculus, and we are implementing the CFD results into the robot controller using fuzzy logic

Our modeling is what uses the PID.

JesseWelling · « **Reply #10 on:** August 21, 2007, 06:43:13 AM »

ohhh well maybe i should RTFA

crossroads1946 · « **Reply #11 on:** September 02, 2007, 08:28:49 AM »

Bummer. Another one of my ground-breaking ideas has already been taken. Oh well. I guess I won't have to start from scratch when I build mine now. Nice work!

jklv · « **Reply #12 on:** September 16, 2007, 02:15:21 PM »

Amazing, it is an honor to be part of your forum

Admin · « **Reply #13 on:** August 05, 2008, 07:39:20 PM »

Hmmmm its been almost exactly one year since the last time I posted anything on my robot fish.

Well, got you two more papers:

This one summarizes the project (pectoral fin UUV design, UUV control, and CFD simulations of the UUV) as of ~10 months ago . . .
Design, Development, and Testing of Flapping Fins with Actively Controlled Curvature for an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle

And this one goes into details on UUV control by pectoral fins, using simulation for validation . . .
Fuzzy Logic PID Based Control Design and Performance for a Pectoral Fin Propelled Unmanned Underwater Vehicle

For those who like math and controls, there's lots of it. For those who don't, there are lots of pictures of my robot fish

So why does it take forever to post stuff on my fish? Well, because science is sloooowwwwwww. From inception of a theory to experimentally proving it takes about a year. Then another ~3 months to write a paper on it. Then another ~2-4 months until it is accepted by a journal or conference.

I currently have three more papers in the works, one 95% done, one 60% done, and the last 10% done. I got good results and am mostly finished, but it will take another ~6 months to get it all published.

sdk32285 · « **Reply #14 on:** August 05, 2008, 09:04:33 PM »

Hey
I like that second paper (not to take away from the first paper, but I am a controls guy).

The idea of having the fuzzy logic stage after the main PID controller is interesting. I'm thinking that I can adapt that to a slow moving wheeled rover. The rover has just two ticks per revolution on each wheel which makes it difficult to implement a smooth constant velocity controller that works while going over obstacles or other "features".

My idea is after the PID stage I can add a "fuzzy" stage where I compensate for changes in acceleration and rover pitch.
(I don't plan on publishing this control work, but if I do Ill reference you)

Admin · « **Reply #15 on:** July 27, 2009, 06:51:35 PM »

Ok so its been like a year since I've reported anything new on this project. Well, its because I traveled 8 months around the world (mostly Thailand), so didn't get to work on anything. Below you'll find two new papers recently published. Three more are in the pipeline, hopefully getting published by early next year.

Its heavy reading, lots of controls, CFD stuff, fluid mechanics, etc. I do however strongly recommend looking at the pics. And yeap, pics of the prototype fish swimming around in water!

This following paper models the robot fish in CFD to determine drag coefficients and the effects of the fish body on the fins. This is a 5mb file.

* Ravi Ramamurti, Jason Geder, John S. Palmisano, Banahalli Ratna, William Sandberg, "Computations of Flapping Fin Propulsion for UUV Design," 47th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Conference, AIAA-2009-0724, Washington, DC, January 2009.

This paper shows how the CFD computed drag coefficients are used in a UUV controls simulation. It also shows the prototype experimental fish (actual pics) doing various preliminary maneuvers.

* Jason Geder, Ravi Ramamurti, John S. Palmisano, Marius Pruessner, Banahalli Ratna, William Sandberg, "Sensor Data Fusion and Submerged Test Results of a Pectoral Fin Propelled UUV," International Symposium on Unmanned Untethered Submersible Technology, Durham, New Hampshire, USA on August 23rd-26th, 2009.

edit: fixed link

cuke · « **Reply #16 on:** July 29, 2009, 07:04:24 AM »

Wow ,it's so good!!

billblack · « **Reply #17 on:** August 19, 2009, 10:33:04 AM »

Nice work!
I just saw this in an AUVSI email...Thought you might like to see it if you haven't already:
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/08/12/330963/auvsi-robot-fish-enters-second-phase-of-development.html

Admin · « **Reply #18 on:** January 19, 2011, 01:59:55 PM »

It's been forever since my last post, and I'm still working hard on that video I've promised to upload, but here is another paper with pretty pictures to hold you guys off a bit longer. It covers CFD simulations and analysis of the pectoral fin and chassis.

* Ravi Ramamurti, Jason Geder, John Palmisano, Banahalli Ratna, and William Sandberg, "Computations of Flapping Flow Propulsion for Unmanned Underwater Vehicle Design", AIAA Journal, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 188-201, January 2010.

Admin · « **Reply #19 on:** August 17, 2011, 07:46:04 PM »

Here is a CFD analysis of the latest fish design. Lots of pretty pics if you don't like reading. I'll probably have another paper posted up in the coming weeks. Maybe, just maybe, I'll have a video for you guys by Christmas.

Ravi Ramamurti, Jason Geder, John Palmisano, Marius Preussner, Banahalli Ratna, and William Sandberg, "3-D Unsteady Computational Studies of a Four-Fin Bio-Inspired UUV", 17th International Symposium on Unmanned Untethered Submersible Technology (UUST), Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA, August 21-24, 2011.

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Author Topic: my robot fish, revealed! (Read 17959 times)

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