Design and control of a field deployable batoid robot

This paper presents our latest results in the development of biomimetic batoid robots. Our goal is to utilize these robots for autonomous environmental exploration and monitoring missions in coastal environments. These new robots will be part of a larger heterogeneous robotic network already being developed by our group which combines traditional robotic vehicles with biomimetic ones to leverage advantages of both approaches. The robot described in this paper is designed to be fully field deployable and applies important lessons learned during the development of previous flexible underactuated batoid robots. The robot design including its flexible underactuated continuous body, communications, and control hardware and software approaches are described. Preliminary trajectory control results are also detailed.