UC San Diego

Mobile robots are commonly used to perform tasks in underwater environments that are difficult for humans to endure, such as exploration, long-duration measurements, or maintenance and repair of underwater structures. Traditional underwater robots are often bulky and disruptive to the environment around it and are often adapted from engineered systems that were designed for operation in air. However, the underwater fluid environment is significantly different from the in-air environment and motivates the development of new robot paradigms specifically to address the challenges that arise from the surrounding water. I have taken inspiration from nature, which has evolved fast and efficient mechanisms for underwater locomotion, to design soft, bioinspired walking and swimming robots.

In this work, I have explored several ways to design mobile robots specifically for the underwater fluid environment. To mitigate the negative effects of flow on an underwater walking robot, I created a soft inflatable structure that can be attached to the robot to alter the lift and drag forces on the robot and increase traction in flow. To create locomotion independent of the flow on the robot, I designed soft suction discs and soft linear actuators that enable adhesive-based locomotion. By leveraging interactions with fluid, I created a steerable, shape-changing robot that uses vectored jet propulsion to swim through open water. This work has the potential to enable more efficient locomotion in underwater environments more closely resembling the capabilities of biological systems.