Afolayan M.O., Yawas D.S., Folayan C.O., Aku S.Y.
Mechanical Engineering Department, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria
Afolayan, M.O., Mechanical Engineering Department, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria; Yawas, D.S., Mechanical Engineering Department, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria; Folayan, C.O., Mechanical Engineering Department, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria; Aku, S.Y., Mechanical Engineering Department, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria
Imitating living object mechanically is the current trend in the frontier of robotics. A better imitation is assured if the material used for the joints is a biological equivalent. Polyisoprene (Natural Rubber) has some physical properties that is close to muscle material and is thus presented in this work. The problem of it becoming soft as it get involved in repetitive task of oscillation and bearing weights of attached part led to designing a dedicated testing machine to find out the rate not to exceed. The rubber sample used was found to show significant softening at frequency of 25 Hz. The polyisoprene material was used to build simple planar joint and adapted for flapping foil underwater robot in the form of a Mackerel robotic fish (394.01 mm long). A test at frequency of 2 Hz (an average swimming value) works perfectly well - it has proper kinematics as that of a living fish. © Maxwell Scientific Organization, 2011.