Swim-and-Breach at Palm Scale: A Rudder-Steered Two-Propeller Underwater Robot Platform with Differential-Thrust Pitch Control

2026-09-15

AI Summary

本文介绍了一种掌上型两螺旋桨水下机器人平台，通过差动推力俯仰控制和尾舵偏航控制实现高效游动与跃出水面，适用于小规模障碍跨越及检测任务。

Abstract

We present a palm-scale (65 mm, 34 g) swim-and-breach robot platform. Two vertically stacked propellers provide both propulsion and differential-thrust pitch control under a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) loop, and a tail rudder adds yaw control. The hull, evaluated by flow simulation, reduces the drag five-fold relative to an equivalent cuboid, and the propellers are optimized using B-series modeling validated by dynamometer measurements. The current robot swims at 13.9 body lengths per second and turns at 209 deg per second, corresponding to the upper limits reported for underwater robots. In free swimming, the pitch loop turns the body to any commanded nose-up pitch angle, and, with the rudder stabilizing the exit, the current robot leaps 1.6 body lengths high and 3.7 long in a seamless cruise-leap-cruise sequence. The platform can be used to build small-scale robots that cross barriers and dry gaps between pools for inspection in streams, flooded structures, and industrial systems.

Problem

• swim-and-breach
• underwater robot
• palm-scale

Innovation

• palm-scale
• differential-thrust pitch control
• rudder-steered
• flow simulation
• B-series modeling