Abstract: Fish mortality assessments for turbine passages are currently performed by live-animal testing with up to a hundred thousand fsh per year in Germany. A propelled sensor device could act as a fsh surrogate. In this context, the study presented here investigates the state of the art via a thorough literature review on propulsion systems for aquatic robots. An evaluation of propulsion performance, weight, size and complexity of the motion achievable allows for the selection of an optimal concept for such a fsh mimicking device carrying the sensors. In the second step, the design of a bioinspired soft robotic fsh driven by an unconventional drive system is described. It is based on piezoceramic actuators, which allow for motion with fve degrees of freedom (DOF) and the creation of complex bio-mimicking body motions. A kinematic model for the motion’s characteristics is developed, to achieve accurate position feedback with the use of strain gauges. Optical measurements validate the complex deformation of the body and deliver the basis for the calibration of the kinematic model. Finally, it can be shown, that the calibrated model presented allows the tracking of the deformation of the entire body with an accuracy of 0.1 mm.

Key words: Unconventional drive system , · Biologically inspired robots , · Biomimetics , · Flexible robots