Following today's discussion with Professor Mangharam, we will be pursing the creation of a soft-actuated fish that would be able to swim underwater. This project is based loosely on this MIT research project.
Essentially, this fish would have three primary segments: The head, the midsection, and the rear.
The rear of the fish is comprised of two large specialized actuators, bonded together. In between them lies a rigid piece of plastic or hardened silicon, which can be further extended and shaped to form a tail.
We will conduct our first mini-experiment in this area by fabricating a small version of this fish, with a body diameter of about 2 inches and length of 4 inches.
The pneumatic channel will be part of the mold and run the length of the rear section adjacent to the middle substrate.
The midsection will interface with the rear via a bonded silicon seal plate paired with a matching acrylic faceplate. The silicon plate will include extended walls to envelop and thus water-seal the acrylic faceplate.
The mid section and part of the head will include our electronics, likely including an mbed, pressure sensors, solenoid valves, and possibly and exhaust port/swim bladder. A potential arrangement of these parts is displayed below.
With a small amount of room left in the head section, it should be possible down the line to embed some form of sensor or other item which we might find useful or interesting.
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