Design and Optimization of a Multimode Amphibious Robot with Propeller-Leg

This paper describes a novel multimode motion robot named SHOALBOT,which with multimode operations depends on only one type of propulsiondevice and can work flexibly in the amphibious environment. Robots that work in water need to minimize the number of drive components to improve reliability and reduce communication pressure, our unique design enables the robot to rely on a kind of propulsion device named propeller-leg to have the ability to run rapidly in the seaside and seabed, and swim with multi degrees of freedom in the water (contains only four driving elements). We analyzed and optimized propeller-leg by simulation combined with the open water test, the propeller-leg's thrust in the water before and after optimization differs by 400% according to the test results. We optimized the minimum difference between the forward and reverse thrust of the propeller-leg to improve the stability of the robot movement process, and optimized the difference from 25% to 3%. This paper provides sufficient technical details and completeness, and through a series of experiments validated that the SHOALBOT has excellent movement ability in the amphibious environment.