2018 the International Conference of Intelligent Robotic and Control Engineering
Simulation and Analysis for Propulsion Mechanism of Carangiform Robotic Fish on
ADAMS
Runfeng Zhang
School of Mechanical Engineering
Tianjin University
Tianjin, China
e-mail: zhangrunfeng@tju.edu.cn
Abstract—A new kind of propulsion mechanism of
carangiform robotic fish is introduced in this paper. The
principle of swimming of carangiform fish was analyzed and
then illustrated the general working principle of propulsion
mechanism, which ensures the stability and flexibility of the
robotic fish swimming in the water. According to the design
principle and parameters of whole prototype, the carangiform
robotic fish have different pitching and yawing motions, which
enables the carangiform robotic fish can adapt to complicated
environment. Then the velocity of caudal fin was analyzed
theoretically and the relationship between oscillating frequency
and maximum amplitude were given. Finally using ADAMS
software to analyze and simulate the propulsion mechanism,
then make a pool test to valid the efficiency of the propulsion
mechanism and get a good result, which ensures the robotic
fish have a high reliability and practicability in the future.
Keywords-carangiform robotic fish; propulsion mechanism;
ADAMS
I. INTRODUCTION
With the development in twenty-first Century, people
pay more and more attention to exploitation of marine
resources and underwater robot has become the mainstream
of ocean exploration. As a kind of underwater robot, the
robotic fish has various kinds of design mode. In bionics, the
performance in accelerating, speed and maneuvering ability
vary from different kinds of fish. In all kinds of fish, there
are about 85% fish using BCF as propulsion method, in
which carangiform fish has high swimming efficiency and
good maneuvering performance in speed, acceleration and
control [1]. Therefore, the tail of carangidae robotic fish
propulsion mechanism analysis has very important
significance.
Through the functional analysis of the bionic robotic fish,
most fish is mainly using caudal fin to realize the forward
movement. According to the existed examples at home and
abroad colleges, which mainly divided into the following
categories: Peking University and ESSEX University design
the robotic fish using multi-joint mechanism, each joint
angle is controlled by a servo; Massachusetts Institute of
Technology using mechanical actuator for the design of
robotic fish, but also the specific control law for multiple
actuator coordination control; Pasadena City College design
robotic fish using the spring as the core mechanism, the
mechanism can improve the efficiency of utilization while
978-1-5386-7416-1/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
Haiyang Zhang
Center of Education and Innovation
North China Institute of Aerospace Engineering
Langfang, China
e-mail: shenzhou_group@126.com
the spring wear make it difficult to ensure accuracy; The
swimming principle of robotic fish by Tokyo University in
Japan developed on the alternating electric field drives the
tail for swimming, changing the electric field causes the tail
carried forward. Zhejiang University and Harbin Institute of
Technology designed a crank rocker mechanism, for which
the control method has the advantages of simple, convenient
and economical [2-12]. Through the analysis of the above
robotic fish propulsion mechanism, a kind of propulsion
mechanism of carangiform robotic fish is introduced in the
paper, and using ADAMS software to analyze and simulate
the mechanism, proved the feasibility and safety of the
mechanism.
II. PRINCIPLE ANALYSIS FOR PROPULSION MECHANISM
OF ROBOTIC FISH
In the process of swimming, the caudal fin will generate
a series of vortex along the direction of water flow according
the hydrodynamics research, which called Carmen vortex.
The oscillation of caudal fin will produce drainage effect on
water flow, thus forming a series of vortex, which is opposite
to vortex known as the anti-Carmen vortex. The anti-Carmen
vortex’s thrust direction is parallel to the fish body, which
has a very high propulsive efficiency [9]. The generating
steps are shown in Fig.1.
Figure 1. Propulsion steps of caudal fin.
Using Strohual Number as parameters for anti-Carmen
vortex. Under the condition of using caudal fin to propel,
denoting Strohual Number as follow:
fA A
St  
U U/f
(1)
where f is oscillating frequency, A is oscillating amplitude, U
is swimming velocity. Trinatafyllou points that the fish can
1
achieve a high propulsion efficiency when the Strohual
Number ranges from 0.025 to 0.040 [13]. The movement of
carangidae in one-dimensional steady swimming condition is Input shaft
divided into two parts, the fluctuation of body and the
composite motion of caudal fin. The movement generate a
body wave from neck to the tail, which gradually increased
and the maximum amplitude is strictly limited in the post l/3
part of the body. It reached the maximum value in the end of
body. A simplified physical model in the one-dimensional
Figure 3. The propulsion mechanism diagram.
steady swimming under the condition of carangidae is shown
in Fig.2. The steps of transmission are shown as follow:
The input shaft drives the bevel gear 1, which drives
bevel gear 2 to rotate. The gear 2 drives the crank 3 rotation
so as to drives the linkage 4, which drives the rocker 5 to
swing and then promote the caudal fin to swing. The
prototype of propulsion mechanism is shown in Fig.4 and the
whole prototype is show in Fig.5.

5 4 3 2 1

Figure 2. Simplified carangidae physical model in the one-dimensional

steady swimming.

Establish coordinate system as above, the envelope of

body wave can be represented using quadratic equation as
follow:

y1= C1 x + C2 x2 (2)
Figure 4. The prototype of propulsion mechanism
where y1 is the function of the envelope of body wave, C1 is
the primary coefficient and C2 is quadratic term coefficient.
The fish body wave curve of carangidae fish can be
regarded as the synthesis of the fish body wave amplitude
envelope and sine curve, it began in the back of the neck,
extending to the tail. The curve equation can be expressed as
follow：
ybody  (C1 x  C2 x 2 )sin(kx  t ) (3)

where ybody is the lateral displacement of the fish, k is fish

body wave number,  is wave frequency. According to the
principle of propulsion of carangidae fish , the kinematics
parameters of the fish body and tail can be determined by
fitting the curve.
III. DESIGN OF MECHANICAL TRANSMISSION
A. Principle of Mechanical Transmission
The propulsion mechanism of robotic fish adopts the
crank-rocker mechanism and using motor as driven mode,
which can properly meet working requirements. The
deformation of the crank have a high efficiency in overall
space utilization and is convenient to adapt some beneficial
improvements future. The rocker is connected to the caudal
fin to facilitate swing propulsion. The propulsion mechanism
diagram is shown in Fig.3.
Figure 5. The prototype of carangiform robotic fish.
B. Fin Structure Design
In bionics, the fish with large aspect ratio have a good
swimming performance than the low aspect ratio. The fish
with large aspect ratio usually have crescent shaped or
forked shape caudal fin and the tail handle is small and
narrow [14]. The 2/3 of fish body is rigid in the swimming
movement, which improves the propulsion efficiency. In the
design, the caudal fin shape adopt crescent shaped and with a
large aspect ratio based on the carangidae fish.
  I2 / S  I /b (4)

2
where I is span length, S is wing area. is range from 2 to 18
in the design. According to the parameters of carangidae fish,
the section of caudal fin is adopted NACA0018 [15],
S=12080mm2, I=272.5mm. The shape and section of caudal
fin are shown in Fig.6.
(a) (b)
Figure 6. The shape and section of caudal fin.
vG max  2 fr sin A (7)
According to the design requirements and the truthful
oscillation frequency of carangiform fish [16];
Let r=0.09m, caudal amplitude range from 0 to 90
degrees, the vibration frequency is selected from 0 to 30Hz;
Thus the relationship among gravity velocity of caudal
fin and amplitude and oscillating frequency is shown in Fig.8,
from which the gravity velocity of caudal fin increases (or
decreases) when the swing frequency increases (or decreases)
and the caudal amplitude unchanged or when the caudal
amplitude increases (or decreases) and the swing frequency
unchanged.

IV. SIMULATION OF PROPULSION MECHANISM

A. Theoretical Analysis of Propulsion Mechanism
Before make simulation analysis of the propulsion
mechanism, firstly analyze the mechanism theoretically. The
robotic fish model coordinate system was established shown
in Fig.7 (a) (b) .

Figure 8. The relationship between oscillating frequency& amplitude.

(a)
In practical design and manufacture, the oscillating
amplitude of robotic fish is a fixed value. The maximum
A state of the propulsion mechanism is shown in the Fig.7 (b).
According to the concrete design parameters, OB=25mm,
OC=60mm, and combined with the Law of triangle, the
calculated oscillating amplitude is 24.62°.
B. Simulation and Analysis of Propulsion Mechanism
ADAMS (acronym of Automated Dynamic Analysis of
(b)
Mechanical Systems) is a multibody dynamics simulation
software equipped with module of flexible body simulation.
Figure 7. Scheme of robotic fish coordinate system. The caudal fin is made of rubber and the crank-rocker
mechanism is defined as rigid body. Using the ADAMS
Define the negative direction of X axis as the direction of
software could realize Rigid-flexible coupling analysis and
movement of the robotic fish. In order to simplify the have a high instruction meaning in practical design.
calculation, the tail is simplified as plate and coordinate
parameters are as follows:
where G is the position of fish tail, r is distance between
gravity and joint center, S is nominal area of water ward.
When the tail oscillating as sine wave, the centrobaric
coordinates of robotic fish can be described as:

xG  (r sin A) sin 2ft

(5)

Where f is the oscillating frequency of caudal fin;

dxG
vG   2 fr sin A cos 2 ft (6)
dt Figure 9. The constraints on the propulsion mechanism.

3
 The propulsion mechanism model is modeling by the to realize the swimming in the water. Therefore, the
SolidWorks, then export into ADAMS to define constraints oscillation frequencies with different design parameters have
and driven function. The constraints and driven function are different optimal values.
defined on the propulsion mechanism is shown in Fig.9. The
presence of the constraints can replace some parts and
standard parts in the role of simulation in the actual operation
of the process. Therefore, this kind of parts and standard
parts need not added to the simulation model, which can
simplify the complexity of the simulation model and
accelerate the simulation speed. Using Ansys to generate the
modal neutral file (MNF) of flexible tail [17], and then
imported into ADAMS to make simulation. The prototype of
propulsion mechanism is shown in Fig.10.

Figure 11. The velocity curve while driven function f (t )   6  t

.

Figure 10. Propulsion mechanism in ADAMS.

TABLE I. THE CONSTRAINTS OF PROPULSION MECHANISM

Part Part Constraint of DOF

Constraint Type
1 2 Translation Revolve
Figure 12. The velocity curve while driven function f (t )   4  t
Motor-gear1 Revolute Motor Gear1 3 2 .
Gear2-crank Revolute Gear2 Crank 3 2
Crank-board Revolute Crank Board 3 2
Rocker-crank Revolute Rocker Crank 3 2
Rocker-block Translational Rocker Block 2 3

After defined the constraints on the propulsion

mechanism in ADAMS, there are four revolute pairs and one
translational pair in the mechanism.
When applying different drive functions to the motor, the
kinematic curve of propulsion mechanism respectively as
shown as Fig 11, Fig 12 and Fig 13. In the choice of driven
functions, there are three functions to apply into the analysis
of the propulsion mechanism .which are list below:
f (t )   3  t Figure 13. The velocity curve while driven function f (t )   3  t
Driven function: f (t )   6  t
C. Assemble and Pool Test of Carangiform Robotic Fish
f (t )   4  t
Assemble the parts and driven motors in the robotic fish,
then adapt STM32 as controller to coordinate the rotate angle
According to the analysis of the velocity curves about of the motor. The whole robotic fish is shown as Fig.14.
propulsion caudal fin, the periodic of propulsion mechanism The whole robotic fish is contained many different
can ensure the robotic fish have a good performance in modules, such as communication module, energy and
balance. The oscillating speed increases as the increase of sensors module, buoyancy adjustment module, the design of
motor speed. As the tail is made of flexible material, if the modularization ensure the high reliability and safety in the
oscillation frequency too fast will make the mechanism fail future application.

4

Figure 14. The whole robotic fish.
In order to reduce the drag and smooth the shape of the
robot fish, the drag-reduction paint is sprayed onto the
outside of the robot fish.
While making the pool test in the water tank, apply the
same driven function as the simulation into motor and
recording the propulsion velocity, which are show in Fig.15.
Figure 15. The pool test of carangiform robotic fish.
According the field-measured values from pool test, the
practical swimming velocity of carangiform robotic fish is
increased with the growing frequency. However, the velocity
has quadratic relation with frequency while the amplitude is
a fixed value. The Fig.16 shows the relationship between
swimming velocity and frequency.
Figure 16. The relationship between swimming velocity & frequency.
V. CONCLUSIONS
The paper presents a kind of propulsion mechanism of
carangiform robotic fish. Through theoretical analysis and
simulation based on ADAMS, the propulsion mechanism has
a good performance in velocity and acceleration. The
oscillating velocity of caudal fin has a positive relationship
with oscillating frequency and maximum amplitude, which is
of importance in the design of robotic fish. Finally a pool test
have valid the feasibility of the propulsion mechanism and
proves the swimming velocity have quadratic relation with
frequency while the amplitude is a fixed value, which
ensures the robotic fish have a high reliability and
practicability in the future.
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