Development of Seabed Walking Mechanism for Underwater Amphibious Robot

In this paper, we proposed an underwater walking mechanism for the underwater amphibious robot that uses one degree of freedom (DOF) actuators. For this walking mechanism, we developed a unique spring-hinge type paddle that enables the amphibious robot to walk on the seabed. We proposed a simplified 2-D model of the robot. Then, we analyzed rough-terrain capability of this mechanism by using following terms: the paddle-length, the hinge-length, the distance to the obstacle, and the maximum sweep angle. We developed an experimental robot for a feasibility test of the effectiveness of proposed walking mechanism, and we performed ground and water tank experiments with this robot. As a result, we confirmed that the robot walked stably with the proposed mechanism.