Propulsion of swimming robots at the surface and underwater is largely dominated by rotary propellers due to high thrust, but at the cost of low efficiency. Due to their inherently high speed turning motion, sharp propeller blades and generated noise, they also present a disturbance to maritime ecosystems. Our work presents a bio-inspired approach to efficient and eco-friendly swimming with moderate to high thrust. This paper describes the concept, development and experimental validation of the novel anguilliform robot MAR. With 15 elements making up the 0.5 m long propulsive section and driven by a single, speed-controlled brushless DC motor (BLDC), the robot creates a smooth continuous traveling wave for propulsion. Steering and autonomy are realized by an actuated head with integrated batteries that serves as a front-rudder. Almost neutral buoyancy paired with individually actuated pectoral fins furthermore enable submerged swimming and diving maneuvers. MAR accomplished high thrusts at a moderate power consumption in first performance tests. The achieved maximum velocity and the speed related efficiency (defined as the achieved speed over the power consumption m Ws-1) did not fulfill the expectations in the first tests (in comparison to commercial rotary thrusters), which can be largely attributed to the spatial limitations and an imperfect test setup. Nevertheless, the potential towards highly efficient and high thrust propulsion is visible and will be further investigated in future efforts.

中文翻译：

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高效伞形游泳机器人MAR的设计与开发。

由于推力高，游泳机器人在水面和水下的推进主要由旋转螺旋桨控制，但效率低下。由于其固有的高速旋转运动，锋利的螺旋桨叶片和产生的噪音，它们也对海洋生态系统造成了干扰。我们的工作提出了一种以生物为灵感的方法，以中等推力至高推力实现高效，环保的游泳。本文介绍了新型肘状机器人MAR的概念，开发和实验验证。该机器人由15个元件组成，长度为0.5 m，由单个速度控制的无刷直流电动机（BLDC）驱动，可产生平滑的连续行波以进行推进。转向和自主性通过带有集成电池的操纵头实现，该电池用作前舵。几乎中性的浮力，再加上单独驱动的胸鳍，还可以进行水下游泳和潜水动作。MAR在首次性能测试中以中等功耗实现了高推力。达到的最大速度和与速度相关的效率（定义为在功率消耗m Ws-1上达到的速度）未达到第一次测试的期望（与商用旋转推进器相比），这在很大程度上可归因于局限性和不完善的测试设置。然而，高效和高推力推进的潜力是显而易见的，并将在今后的工作中进一步研究。MAR在首次性能测试中以中等功耗实现了高推力。达到的最大速度和与速度相关的效率（定义为在功率消耗m Ws-1上达到的速度）未达到第一次测试的期望（与商用旋转推进器相比），这在很大程度上可归因于空间局限性和不完善的测试设置。然而，高效和高推力推进的潜力是显而易见的，并将在今后的工作中进一步研究。MAR在首次性能测试中以中等功耗实现了高推力。达到的最大速度和与速度相关的效率（定义为在功率消耗m Ws-1上达到的速度）未达到第一次测试的期望（与商用旋转推进器相比），这在很大程度上可归因于空间局限性和不完善的测试设置。然而，高效和高推力推进的潜力是显而易见的，并将在今后的工作中进一步研究。这在很大程度上可以归因于空间限制和不完善的测试设置。然而，高效和高推力推进的潜力是显而易见的，并将在今后的工作中进一步研究。这在很大程度上可以归因于空间限制和不完善的测试设置。然而，可以看到高效和高推力推进的潜力，并将在今后的工作中进一步研究。