用拓扑优化设计液压软鱼尾,实现可编程的三维游动。
TO-SoFiT: Topology Optimization of Hydraulic Soft Fish Tail Design for programmable undulating locomotion

- 基于流体-结构耦合模型,自动优化软鱼尾结构。
- 2D优化尾部比矩形尾效率更高,支持多轴弯曲与幅值调节。
- 适合水下机器人、仿生游动系统研究者使用。
软体机器人利用柔性材料通过可控弹性变形产生运动,适用于水下探测和仿生海洋系统等精细任务。尽管液压/气压驱动仍是关键,但缺乏系统化设计框架,限制了具备复杂3D运动能力(如鱼类游动)的机器人发展。本文提出一种拓扑优化方法,自动化设计液压软鱼尾,明确解决流体驱动与结构变形间的耦合依赖问题。采用基于达西定律并引入排水项的模型,模拟空间变化的液压压力载荷,并通过有限元分析转化为一致节点力。所用鲁棒多目标优化框架兼顾变形效率、流固耦合、几何可制造性及所需刚度,优化具有生物启发性的软鱼尾以实现3D游泳运动学。优化后的尾部结构集成于气动网络执行器,在多种液压载荷下进行计算验证,实现了可调的波状振幅和多轴弯曲,用于深度调节。优化的2D尾部性能优于矩形对照组。通过级联优化尾段,展示了在不同液压负载下软体机器鱼尾的可编程游动模式。该工作推动了液压执行器与软结构的系统性协同设计,为实现具有优化结构的水下机器人及类似脊椎动物的敏捷运动提供了路径。代码与仿真公开于'https://github.com/PrabhatIn/TO-SoFiT'。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Soft robots leverage compliant materials to generate motion through controlled elastic deformation, making them ideal for delicate tasks such as underwater exploration and biomimetic marine systems. Although hydraulic/pneumatic actuation remains pivotal for such systems, the lack of systematic design frameworks has hindered the development of robots capable of complex 3D motion, such as fish-like swimming. This work introduces a topology optimization method to automate the design of a hydraulic soft fish tail, explicitly addressing the design-dependent coupling between fluidic actuation and structural deformation. We use a Darcy law-based model augmented with a drainage term to simulate spatially varying hydraulic pressure loads, translating these into consistent nodal forces via finite element analysis. The employed robust multi-criteria optimization formulation balances deformation efficiency, fluid-structure interaction, geometric manufacturability, and required stiffness for optimizing a bioinspired soft fish tail for 3D swimming kinematics. The optimized tail topology is incorporated into a pneumatic network actuator and computationally validated under various hydraulic loads, achieving tunable undulatory amplitudes and multiaxis bending for depth adjustment. The optimized 2D tail outperforms its rectangular counterpart. By cascading optimized tail segments, we demonstrate programmable swimming patterns in soft robotic fish tails at different hydraulic loads. This work advances the systematic codesign of hydraulic actuators and soft structures, offering a pathway to automate underwater robots with optimized design and vertebrate-like agility in confined aquatic environments. Our implementations and simulations are publicly available at 'https://github.com/PrabhatIn/TO-SoFiT'.
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