Development and Analysis an Underwater Boomimetic Microrobot

Microrobots have powerful applications in the biomedical and naval fields. They should be compact structure, easy to be manufactured, efficient locomotion, driven by low voltage and simple control system. To attain these purposes, inspired by the leg of stick insects, we designed a novel type of biomimetic locomotion. The locomotion includes two ICPF (ionic conducting polymer film) actuators to realize the 2-DOF motions. We developed several microrobots with this locomotion. Firstly we reviewed a microrobot, named Walker-1, with one DOF motion. And then a new microrobot, named Walker-2, utilizing 6 ICPF actuators with 3-DOF motion is introduced. It is 47mm in diameter, 8mm in height (in static state) and 0.61g of dried weight. We compared the two microrobot prototypes, and the result shows that the Walker-2 has some advantages, such as more flexible moving motion, good balance, less water resistance, more load ability and so on. A microrobot with this locomotion has powerful applications in the biomedical and naval fields