JingWei: A Waterfowl-Inspired Flapping-Wing Robot With Multimodal Aerial-Aquatic Mobility

Abstract

Aerial-aquatic amphibious robots can enhance adaptability to complex environments and have become a research hotspot in recent years. Waterfowl in nature exhibit remarkable multimodal cross-domain locomotion capabilities. Inspired by the aerial flight and aquatic swimming behavior of waterfowl, we propose a biomimetic flapping-wing aerial- aquatic robot called JingWei. JingWei achieves flight attitude control through the integration of flapping wings and stroke plane adjustment, enabling vertical takeoff, hovering, and six degrees of freedom (DoF) free flight. Its biomimetic flippers with asymmetric stiffness flexure hinges, fabricated using the Smart Composite Microstructures (SCM) method, are paired with a lightweight paddling mechanism, allowing efficient movement on water surface. The amphibious robot has a width of 36 cm and a weight of 39.4 g. JingWei is capable of sustained flight for 5.4 minutes or swimming for approximately 1.5 hours, with mode transitions between swimming and flying completed in under 0.8 seconds. Through experiments on flight, swimming, and mode transitions, we validated the robot's multimodal locomotion capabilities, providing new insights into the system design of biomimetic aerial-aquatic robots.