Step function based turning maneuvers in biomimetic robotic fish

This paper presents a new turning maneuver generation method for a multilink biomimetic robotic fish, in which smooth step functions are introduced to dynamically trigger directed offsets in active and asymmetric swimming. With the proposed method, three basic turning modes can be unified into a general framework by choosing appropriate step-function combinations and dynamic bias. Furthermore, this method can be employed to maneuver the robotic fish agilely in the path planning, which promises more flexibility and steadiness in potential applications to bio-inspired autonomous underwater vehicles.