• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.435-440
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• 2007

Fish-mimetic robots or fish-mimetic propulsors have been developed or under construction. A mechanical system cannot have the same functions as bio-organic systems. Thus, the hydrodynamic characteristics of fish locomotion should be well understood in order to develop and control a feasible intelligent fish-mimetic robot with its optimal motion pattern known. In this paper, a mackerel-mimetic robot fish is fabricated in order to understand the hydrodynamic characteristics of fish locomotion. A simplified unsteady flow theory is also applied to the hydrodynamic analysis of the motion of the anterior part of the robotic fish. The normal and axial forces of the fish are measured by changing the amplitude and frequencies of fanning motion. It is found that the present theoretical results agree with the measured data.