Underwater Robot with Buoyancy Adjust System Based on Sperm Oil Hypothesis - Posture Control by Selecting Syringes for Heating

摘要

There is a hypothesis that insists that sperm whales control their buoyancy by melting or congealing spermaceti oil in their head. We are now developing an underwater robot with a buoyancy adjust system based on the hypothesis. The robot has six syringes filled with paraffin wax that is a substitute for spermaceti oil. The paraffin wax is heated by nichrome wires to melt the wax. We can control the posture of the robot by selecting syringes that are heated. In this paper, we describe experimental results of posture control of the robot.