Proceedings of the 2004 IEEE
InternationalConference on Robotics 8 Automation
New Orleans, LA April 2004
Design and Dynamic Analysis of Fish Robot:
PoTuna
EunJung K i m
School of Mechanical Engineering
Pohang University of Science and Technology
Pohang, Korea
Email: kejjung@postech.ac.kr
Telephone: +82-54-279-2844
Fa: +82-54-279-8459
Abshulcf-This paper presents the design and the analysis of
a “fish-like underwater robot”. In order to develop swimming
robot like a real fish, extensive hydrodynamic analysis were made
followed by the study of biology of the fishes especially its ma-
neuverability and propel styles. Swimming mode is achieved by
mimicking fish-swimming of carangiform. This is the swimming
mode of the fast motion using its tail and peduncle for propulsion.
In order to generate configurations of vortices that gives efficient
propulsion yawing and surging with a caudal fin has applied and
in order to submerge and maintain the body balance pitching
and heaving motion with a pair of pectoral fin is used. We have
derived the equation of motion of PoTuna by two methods. In
first method, we use the equation of motion of underwater vehicle
with the potential flow theory for the power of propulsion. In
second method, we apply the method of the equation of motion
of UVM(Underwater Vehicle-Manipulator). Then, we compare
these results.
I. INTRODUCTION
Fish are very impressive swimmers in many ways, and it is
possible that submersible robots swimming like fish might be
superior to submersibles using propulsors. For example, fish-
like robots might be more quieter, more maneuverable, and
possibly more energy efficient.
Nearly 70 years ago, Sir James Gray put forward the so
called Gruy’s Paradox which stimulated much research and
controversy[l], [2], [3]. The paradox suggests that if the
resistance of an actively swimming dolphin is equal to that
of a rigid model towed at the same speed, the dolphin’s
muscles must be capable of generating at least seven times
more power than is typical of mammalian muscle[l]. In recent
years, Triantafyllou et a1.[3], [4], [5] proposed an explanation
of Gray’s paradox. He proposed that fish are able to utilize the
energy that exists in the eddies of an oncoming flow by repo-
sitioning the vorticities and the fish’s oscillating swimming
motion induces flow relaminization which serves to reduce
the body drag[ 131.
While a variety of propulsion schemes have been investigated,
most investigations of fish-like swimming have focused on
carangiform-like swimming. In carangiform swimming, the
front two-thirds of the fish’s body moves in a largely rigid way,
while the propulsive body movements are confined mainly
to the rear third of the body-primarily the tail[l2]. Kelly et
0-7803-8232-3/04/$17.00 02004 IEEE 4887
Youngil Youm
School of Mechanical Engineering
Pohang University of Science and Technology
Pohang, Korea
Email: youm@postech.ac.kr
Telephone: +82-54-279-2162
Fax: +82-54-279-8459
al.[16], [I71 derived the equations of motion of a submerged
foil in standard control-affine form via the method of reduced
Lagrangian in a geometric framework. Up to now, many
experiments and dynamic analyses are concentrated on the
forward and turning motion of fish-robot[ lo],[ 1 1],[ 151.
In this paper, we consider the design of a carangiform fish
robot and its 3D dynamic analysis. We have derived the
equation of motion of fish-like robot by two methods. We
apply the potential flow theory for tail power and the method
of UVM(Underwater Vehicle-Manipulator). Then, we compare
these results. The rest of the paper is organized as follow.
Section 2 describes the design of fish-like robottPoTuna).
Section 3 presents the dynamic model of the fish-like robot.
Section 4 contains some concluding remarks.
11. HARDWARE
APPARATUS
We try to develop a high speed and submergible fish robot.
For high speed, we mimic tuna with carangiform mode and
lunate tail. Tuna’s body is so rigid and well-streamlined that
it’s suitable for high speed. We use the lift force of a pair
of pectoral fin for submerging and the ventral fin for turning.
We try to develop the unit-type fish robot, which consists of
several components as a power unit and a control unit. The
fish robot named PoTuna has about 1 m of body length and
25 kg of body weight. Figures 1 and 2 are a picture and a
schematic of PoTuna.
It consists of a tail unit, a battery unit, a WC unit, a
pectoral unit. Tail unit has a RC motor and pedunclehail
mechanism, this is underactuated system with one motor for
two link. Battery unit is used 7.2V, 3300mAh Ni-Mh. R/C
unit is included a F S receiver and a 8051 controller. Pectoral
unit has two servos and mechanisms for turning and up-down
motion.
The body shape of fish robot affects strongly to propulsive
performance like swimming speed. Of course, the body is
wished to have little drag in the swimming. However, we
cannot decide the body shape with only hydrodynamic con-
siderations. Because, it must be well-balanced to the center
of gravity and the buoyant position, and it is limited from the

Fig. 1. The Picture of fish robot-PoTuna
Fig. 2. The Structure of fish robot-PoTuna
location of every mechanical components. The design points
for the body are as follows.
e The body shape is matched to the location of
mechanical components,
e Well-balanced design between the total volume
(displacement) and the total weight is required,
e Well-balanced shape between the center of gravity
and the buoyant point is required,
e A few drag force is required,
e A few perturbation of water flow is required
around a tail fin,
e A simple shape is better for easy building.
111. SYSTEMMODELING
In this section, we will derive the equation of motion for
PoTuna using two method.
A. PoTuna Modeling using the Potential $ow theory
In first method,.we consider that PoTuna's body is rigid and
the force by tail oscillation is a kind of external force as drag,
thrust, and so forth. We assume that the fluid flow is invis-
cid, incompressible, irrotational and ideal fluid. Under these
assumptions, the hydrodynamic forces and torques that act on
the foil are determined using potential flow theory[6],[7]. The
presence and effects of free and central vortices are ignored
for the purpose of motion planning and controller design, and
are treated as disturbances.
I ) The Dynamic Equation of Fish Body: The motion of a
rigid body in a 3D space can be expressed as[14]:
Mmq + CRB(q)q = r
where Mw, C,(q) are the inertia matrix and the Cori-
olis/Centripetal matrix of fish body, respectively, 77 is the
position of fish robot with respecit to the inertial frame, q is the
velocity of fish robot with respect to the body fixed frame(Bth
frame) and r is given by:
where T Z S T denotes the restorin;g forces and moments, due to
weight and buoyancy, TDAMp deriotes the forces and moments
due to different type of damping, TADD denotes the added
mass forces and moments due to the inertia of the surrounding
fluid, r m denotes the Froude-Kriloff forces, which are due to
the inertia matrix of the displaced fluid and denotes a
generic external force which can be considered the force by
tail oscillation. The final equatio.ns of motion are given:
where J is the transformation matrix of Bth frame with respect
to inertial frame, q, is the relative acceleration between fish
robot and fluid, and other force and moment terms are given
by:
where ct is the angle of attack.
2 ) The External Force by Tail Oscillation: Consider an
elliptical Joukowski foil whose profile is described by a set
of points in the complex plane 5; E C = { z = 2 iy} with+
x E R in the direction of the chord length, and y E R in
the direction nsrmal to it. S is the image of the unit circle
C = {< = e i e , e E [0,2n]} under the Joukowski mapping
F := C -+ z given by:
z = F(C) := c + cc + -
c +G
U2
(4)
where U and Cc determine the shape of the foil. The complex
potential for the flow around the Joukowski foil is given by:
4.) = U ( t ) w ( C )+ V(t:lw2(<)+ fl(t)W3(5)
+ Yc(t)w4(<) + :c?'k%(<; Ck(t))
(5)
k
Here, C = F - ' ( z ) , and U ( t ) ,V(i.)are the absolute velocities
in the directions parallel and perpendicular to the foil's chord,
and n(t) is the angular velocity of the foil respectively. yc is
the strength of the central vortex, and y k and F(<k(t))with
k = 1,. . . ,n k are the strengths and locations of the n k free
vortices. Once the complex potential has been defined, we can
(1) derive force per unit span X and Y along the z and y using
4888
Milne-Thomson's method[6]. where

where the added mass coefficient

+
and W = U ZV is the linear velocity in the z = is y +
plane, and R is the angular velocity, and we assume that we
don't consider free and central vortices, that is, yc, yk and r
equal 0. Then the forces and torques per unit span and mass
by tail oscillation is given by:

Then
n n ,T

where p is the density of water.

B. PoTuna Modeling using Kane 's method

In this subsection, we will develop a dynamic model for
a PoTuna using Kane's dynamic equation. We will select the
N = 8 generalized velocities of the system as:
The moment is given:
q = [wz wy w, w5 w y w, e, e2y (9)

where (wz,wyr w,) is the linear velocity of the fish robot

with respect to the inertial frame expressed in the Bth co-
M =- - VmG2- flm66 - ~~m~~ v2m12+ ordinate frame, (wz,wy,wz) is the angular velocity of the
+ UV(ml1- m22) - Unm26 + Vnml6 fish robot with respect to the inertial frame expressed in
the Bth coordinate frame, and ( e l , & ) which are the joint
(7)
dt
a2 - b2 + acc + velocities of the peduncle and tail, respectively. Figure 3 shows
2 dimensional coordinate frame of fish robot using Kane's
- 2rS2 + Re[a7(2r& - rcC)] method[9], respectively.

4889
 frame is given by:

The angular acceleration about the C.M. of the vehicle with

respect to the inertial frame, expressed in the Bth coordinate
frame is given by:

Fig. 3. The 2 dimensional Coordinate frame of fish robot-PoTuna using

Kane's method
The angular acceleration of an peduncle or tail with respect
to the inertial frame expressed in the Bth coordinate frame is
found from the following:
1) Kinematic Analysis: The kinematic task is more
tractable and systematic if we exploit the use of Denavit-
Hartenberg@-H) coordinate frames. Figure 1 illustrates the The linear acceleration of the C.M. of the vehicle with respect
coordinates that we have selected for our system. The position to the inertial frame, expressed in the Bth coordinate frame is
vector of the C.M. of the peduncle with respect to the C.M. given by:
B
of the fish body expressed in the B coordinate frame is given
by:
B - dvB
aB - -
dt
+ x vg (19)

pg = [:;]
Cx B

+A;c; = cgiA;cp' (10)

The linear acceleration of the C.:M. of peduncle or tail with
respect to the inertial frame expressed in the Bth coordinate
frame is found similarly by the following:

where 4 denote the addition of the physical coordinates of

the two homogeneous vectors on the right hand side, A; is where i denotes the peduncle or the tail.
the homogeneous transformation from coordinate frame P to 2) Inertia Forces: The genesalized inertia force of the
coordinate frame B, and c; is the position vector to the C.M. system requires that we develop expressions for the inertia
of link P expressed in frame P. The position vector of the force and torque of each part in the system. The inertia forces
C.M. of the link T with respect to the C.M. the vehicle is of body, peduncle and tail are given by the following:
given similarly by:
R: = -inza," (21)
B - B - P T T
PT - CB+ABAPCT (1 1) where m, is the mass of fish body, peduncle or tail. The inertia
The angular velocity of the fish body with respect to an inertial torques of body, peduncle or tail x e given by the following:
frame E, expressed in the Bth coordinate system is given by:
E W B = Wx?B + WyGB + W,&B (12)
where I? is the central inertia matirix of fish body, peduncle or
where the hat denotes a unit vector and the notation E ~ Btail, expressed in the Bth coordinate frame. The generalized
denotes the angular velocity of frame B with respect to frame inertia force for the system is now found to obtain the
E expressed in the Bth coordinate frame. The angular velocity following:
of peduncle and tail with respect to the inertial frame expressed
in the Bth coordinate frame is given by:
F:=
i=B,P,T
(g.+
Tf +
"8%
B
. Rf
)
(23)
E ~ P= E ~ +BB ~ =P E ~ +B91.2~ (13) (?-= l , . . ., P a )
EWT = EWB+BWP+AgPWT 3) Gravity Forces: Gravity can be treated as a generalized
= EWB + B w p +Ii;e22p (14) active force which acts at the center of mass of each part in
the system. The forces due to gravity acting on fish body,
where Ai denotes the rotation submatrix of A;. B ~ isP the peduncle and tail are given by:
angular velocity of peduncle with respect to body and P ~ isT B
Rgmv, = mig (24)
the angular velocity of tail with respect to peduncle. The linear
velocity of the C.M. of the body with respect to the inertial where g B = [ g X , g y , g z l Tis the gravity vector expressed in
frame, expressed in the Bth coordinate system is given by: the Bth coordinate frame. The generalized active force due to
gravity is given by the following:
vg = 'L'zz.8B f VyGB + v+?B (15)
The linear velocity of the C.M. of an peduncle or tail with
respect to the inertial frame, expressed in the Bth coordinate

4890
 4) Hydrodynamic Forces: The hydrodynamic forces in-
duced by the motion of a rigid body in an underwater environ-
ment are very complex and highly nonlinear. The forces may
be developed using incompressible fluid flow using Navior-
Stokes equation, and rarely lead to a closed form solution.
The net effect of added mass, buoyancy, Froude-Kriloff, and
drag are often treated as the superposition of each individual
force.
The added mass force results from the interaction of fluid
in the immediate vicinity of a submerged link which is
acceleration on the fluid through a pressure distribution which
acts on the link body. The force required to accelerate the
surrounding fluid results in an effective inertia which can be
modeled with a 6 x 6 positive definite added mass inertia
matrix, IA. In general the 36 elements of the added mass
matrix, IA, for a body in a real fluid would be distinct and
may be determined from experimental testing techniques. It
has been shown by McMillan et al.[8] and can be derived from
Fossen[l4], that the inertia force and torque of a submerged
body induced by the added mass phenomena has the following
form:
where EWi and V f are skew symmetric matrices, and I i i
is the 6 x G added mass matrix for body, peduncle or tail
expressed in the Bth coordinate frame. Substituting these two
equations into results
We can account for the relative acceleration and velocity of
the fluid by introducing the following relationship:
ay = a? -aB
f
where, v? is the velocity of the fluid expressed in the Bth
coordinate frame, and a; is the acceleration of the fluid
expressed in the Bth coordinate frame. The final form of the
inertia force and torque resulting from added mass is now
given by:
The generalized inertia force due to the added mass for the
entire system is then given by the following:
4891
This is a general formulation for the incorporation of the
hydrodynamic force and torque into the dynamic model. No
assumptions were necessary on how the coefficients of the
added mass matrix are derived.
The buoyancy force is proportional to the mass of the fluid
displaced by the body, peduncle and tail and acts through
the center of buoyancy of the body, peduncle and tail. For
a homogeneous symmetric shape, the center of buoyancy and
center of mass are equivalent. For our model, we assume that
the buoyancy force acts through the center of mass of the body,
peduncle or tail and is given by the following:
where, p is the density of the fluid, Vi is the volume of fluid
displaced by body, peduncle or tail and g B is the gravity vector
expressed in the Bth coordinate frame. The generalized active
force due to buoyancy for the system is given by the following:
The Froude-Kriloff force is similar to the buoyancy force in
that it is proportional to the fluid displaced, but is result of
acceleration of the fluid itself. The force due to Froude-Kriloff
also acts through the center of buoyancy and is given by:
R~~ = p ~ , a f B (29)
The generalized active force due to Froude-Kriloff for the
system is given by the following:
The fluid damping force is considered by drag force. The
equations for the force and moment on each part due to
pressure drag is given by:
Rhg, = -0.5~
I" C~bil(v;(l)lIlvr(l)ldl
TD,,,, = -0.5~
I" Cobillvr(l)LIl(Ag&X ~ ~ ( 1 ) l ) d l
where bidl is the reference area of body, peduncle or tail, bi
is the width of the rectangle that circumscribes the frontal
projection of the infinitesimal element of body, peduncle or
tail, and dt is the length of the infinitesimal element. CD is
the drag coefficient, and vL(Z)l, v'p(l)l and v&(Z)lare the
relative velocity of body, peduncle and tail with respect to the
fluid normal to the part along the length, 1, of the part. The
drag coefficient CD is a function of part geometry and fluid
flow angle. It can be represented by:
CO = CD.basicsin2u
where is shape parameter, and U is the angle between
the relative velocity of the fluid and the part longitudinal axis.
The generalized active force due to the drag force and torque
for the system is then given by:
Then
(Fr I ~ a m p i n g= (Fr) k g (32)
5) Dynamic Model: Having developed all of the general-
ized inertia forces and generalized active forces for the fish
body, peduncle, and tail, the equations of motion are found to
obtain the following dynamic model:
(F:) f (F:)AM + (Fr)gravity + (Fr)Buoy (33)
-k (Fr)FK + (Fr)Dmping
0 Fig. 4.
Eq.33 may not be the most convenient form for the equations
of motion. Then, we make the following form:
M W i i + C(574) + G ( e )+ Fextemal = 0 (34)
where < is the joint variable vector, M(6) is the matrix of
inertia term, C(5, q) is the matrix of CoriolisKentripetal term
and G(5) is the vector of gravity effect.
IV. CONCLUSION
The 3D dynamic equations for a fish robot-PoTuna with
peduncle and tail have been developed using potential flow
theory and Kane’s equation. In first method, we use nonlinear
dynamic equations of rigid body with external force by tail
oscillation obtained by potential flow method. We assume that
fish body has many other forces as drag, lift, buoyancy force,
gravity and the external force by tail oscillation. The external
force is obtained by potential flow theory. These equations
have some disadvantages. Because of limitation of control
input, we must ensure the constraint. Kane’s method provides
a straight-forward approach for incorporating external forces
into the model. External hydrodynamic forces considered in
this model include: buoyancy, damping, added mass, Froude-
Kriloff. The other external forces include gravity and joint
torques of each part. It may be advantageous in future appli-
cations to perform coordinated control of peduncle and tail so
that fish’s body is reached in a prescribed manner.
Fig 4 shows the result using these two method at two
dimensional. Red line is the result of the potential flow method
and blue line is the result of Kane’s method. We can see
almost similar line. We can consider E.0.M of fish robot is
the same as E.O.M. of rigid body except for using the tail’s
forces and moments as thruster’s forces and moments. And
we consider that the only effect of peduncle transforms the
forces and moments of tail to fish’s body. In the future, we try
to compare these simulation result of dynamics equation with
experiment and expand the 3 dimensional simulation.
4892
I ,~, , . x-yposition , , ,1
x positioii
x-y position plot using Potential flow theory and Kane’s method
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