Initial design and experiment of a vehicle with a biomimetic level pectoral fin actuated by shape memory alloy wires

The paper presents a vehicle with a biomimetic level pectoral fin. Firstly, muscle structure of cuttlefish's pectoral fin is analyzed, and undulatory movement of cuttlefish's pectoral fin is simplified. Meanwhile a kinematics model is built for hydromechanics theory analysis. Secondly, a vehicle with a biomimetic level pectoral fin based on a flexible fin unit actuated by shape memory alloy (SMA) wires is designed. Finally, swimming performances is experimented. Experimental results show that the vehicle can realize undulatory swimming by the biomimetic pectoral fin. The swimming speed and theoretical thrust increase with the heating pulse width. The maximum swimming speeds is up to 33 mm/s.