The use of mechanical accumulators in robot herrings

In this paper we explain the mechanical design of the robot herring that we have developed. The use of mechanical accumulators is a fundamental issue in the design of this robot. Two different types of mechanical accumulators are implemented and tested as a spine on the robot. We argue that using an Euler buckled spine, on a robot fish, will give more efficient robots and a naturally occurring biomimetic carangiform swimming style. Furthermore we argue that mechanical accumulators should be an essential part of every coming robot fish. The robot herring is a low cost project where a minimalistic approach has been used to develop a biomimetic robot fish.