Development of a miniature untethered wirelessly operated modular robotic fish for rumen monitoring
Open Access
- Author:
- Nitroy, Colin
- Graduate Program:
- Mechanical Engineering
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- April 29, 2022
- Committee Members:
- Daniel Haworth, Professor in Charge/Director of Graduate Studies
Bo Cheng, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Shashank Priya, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- Rumen
Robot
Fish
Bioinspired
Monitoring - Abstract:
- This thesis presents the design of an untethered miniature modular robotic fish with the ability to be controlled remotely. This bio-inspired robot will be deployed as an autonomous vehicle carrying sensors that can monitor the conditions inside a livestock animal’s rumen, the largest compartment of a ruminant’s digestive system. The robot is composed of multiple modular segments that each contain a custom-designed printed circuit board(PCB) and an independent magnet-in-coil actuator that is controlled through I2C communication from the master controller located in the head of the robot. The robot’s propulsion is generated by the undulatory motion of its body and caudal fin in the fluid in which it swims. This undulatory motion is achieved through the implementation of a central pattern generator(CPG) for each actuator. The ordinary differential equations(ODE) used to calculate the CPG outputs are solved numerically in the master microprocessor located in the robot’s head segment. The defining parameters for the CPGs’ ODEs are determined experimentally by testing the robot inside a water tank. These parameters defining the various swimming gaits of the robot are sent over Bluetooth, enabling remote swimming operation. The silicone waterproof exterior is bio-compatible and since the robot uses only its body and caudal fin to generate locomotion, there are no external means of propulsion that could harm the internal organs of the animal. To aid in the further development of the robot’s localization, the robot contains a 9 degrees of freedom(DOF) inertial measurement unit(IMU) sensor that can be read by the Bluetooth controller to determine the robot’s orientation while swimming. The robot was able to achieve a maximum straight swimming speed of approximately 0.725 body lengths per second and a turning radius of about 1.8 body lengths.