Development of underwater microrobot using ICPF actuator

It is our purpose to develop an underwater microrobot that has the characteristics of flexibility, driven by a low voltage, good response and safety in body. In this paper, we propose a new prototype model of an underwater microrobot utilizing ionic conducting polymer film (ICPF) actuator as the servo actuator. The fish-like propulsion using ICPF actuator as a propulsion tail fin for a microrobot swimming structure in water or aqueous medium is developed. The overall size of the underwater microrobot prototype shaped as a boat with a pair of fins is 40 mm in length, 10 mm in width and 2 mm in thickness. The characteristic of the underwater microrobot is measured by changing the frequency of input voltage from 0.1 Hz to 5 Hz. The experimental results indicate that the swimming speed of the proposed underwater microrobot can be controlled by changing the frequency of input voltage