Modification of aesthetics and evaluation of robotic knife-fish

In today’s world, there have been many achievements and advancements made in robotics to aid in the lives of many. It can concern people from all walks of life – from patients requiring walking aid to the defensive measures a country takes in protecting the nation. The project I was working on concerns the use of a robotic designed knife fish that detects the presence of foreign objects hidden in the waters. The robotic knife-fish, named SWIFT, was a project that was submitted to take part in the Singapore Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) Challenge 2013. The increasing focus on the research and development in efficient propulsive methods of robotic fishes allowed me to improve in the mechanism of SWIFT. The existing knife-fish has participated in such competitions in the past and has won many medals. However, in this competition, there were some specific requirements that were expected of the knife-fish. One major improvisation that had to be made to meet the requirements was of how the knife-fish had to navigate the different obstacles in the water without the aid of a remote. As such, many modifications, to the knife-fish, were made to increase the efficiency of it. Modifications also consisted of waterproofing and servomotor housing. On top of that, the resemblance of the robotic knife-fish to the actual one was another main focus. SWIFT had to undergo 3 obstacles in the challenge before the actual day of the competition, and to construct these obstacles, in resemblance, to the actual ones was also focus. Experiments to analyze the performance of SWIFT on land and in water were also conducted. Flapping amplitude test and fatigue failure test to analyze the structural integrity of the fin design were part of the on land experiments. Under water testing had SWIFT undergo 3 obstacles; Gate zone, Flare and Hoop. In the 3 obstacles the velocity of the fish was noted. Water resistance and the straight-line motion of the fish were taken into consideration.Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering