AquaMILR Limbless Robot
Collaborators: Tianyu Wang, Nikhil Mankame, V. H. Kojuoharov, Daniel I. Goldman
AquaMILR is an untethered limbless robot developed to investigate mechanical intelligence in cluttered aquatic environments. Inspired by organismal muscle actuation, it uses a bilateral cable-driven mechanism to achieve programmable anisotropic body compliance, enabling emergent undulatory swimming through complex hydrodynamic regimes. Robophysical experiments demonstrate that, similar to terrestrial locomotion, an appropriate level of body compliance and undulation frequency are critical for effective open-loop swimming in heterogeneous environments. To further enhance performance, a real-time controller based on cable tension feedback enables adaptive body compliance, improving robustness and speed in unpredictable aquatic conditions.
Highlights
- Bilateral actuation for undulatory swimming
- Compact depth control system for pitch and depth
- Inspired by anguilliform swimming organisms
- Demonstrated in open water and complex environments
Related Publications & Abstracts
Peer-Reviewed Publications
- T. Wang, N. Mankame, M. Fernandez, V. H. Kojuoharov, D. I. Goldman. AquaMILR: Mechanical intelligence simplifies control of undulatory robots in cluttered fluid environments (arXiv preprint). arXiv:2407.01733
Conference Abstracts
- T. Wang, M. Fernandez, G. Tunnicliffe, D. Dortilus, D. I. Goldman. Mechanical and computational intelligence enable agile and robust limbless robotic locomotion in complex aquatic environments. American Physical Society Meeting, March 2025.
- T. Wang, M. Fernandez, G. Tunnicliffe, D. Dortilus, D. I. Goldman. Mechanically intelligent undulatory robotic locomotion in complex aquatic environments. SICB Annual Meeting, January 2025.