Abstract: In this paper, a carangiform robotic fish with 4-DoF (degree of freedom) tail has been developed. The robotic fish has capability of swimming under two modes that are radio control and autonomous swimming. Experiments were conducted to investigate the influences of characteristic parameters including the frequency, the amplitude, the wave length, the phase difference and the coefficient on forward velocity. The experimental results shown that the swimming performance of the robotic fish is affected mostly by the characteristic parameters observed.

Key words: robotic fish, biomimetic, experimental parameter matrix, undulation equation, body length velocity