History of the Robotic Fish

The History of the Vayu Project Team and Key Developments

Year 1 (2017): The team’s closest attempt at the record for a very long time

June 2017 – August 2018 (Year 1 Summer Semester)

Shen Zhong
Henry
Sidhant Gupta

September 2016 – May 2017 (Year 1)

The period where the robot fish started as a final year project. This where a lot of the preliminary work was done for the fish, and many different variations of designs were tested.

Shen Zhong
Sidhant Gupta
Henry
Undergrad FYP group

Year 2 (2018): The fish gets an overhaul

February - August 2018 (Year 2 Second Semester)

Design of new Mechanism, buoyancy of new pieces, an entire stage of redesigning and water tunnel testing for the Fat Fish.

Shen Zhong
Timothy
Henry

September 2017 – Jan 2018 (Year 2 First Semester)

The new prototype design the one which would land us the speed of 50m in 34s at the Stanley Ho Pool. The challenges here were about having a motor drive system that would work, we couldn’t even get the MOFSET to stop burning. Basic issues with waterproofing, buoyancy and foam, turning issues, and tail design.

Shen Zhong
Sidhant Gupta
Henry
Timothy (Started officially in Sept 2017)

Development and expansion

Year 3 (2019): There is always wisdom in the past

This is when we did a lot of teaching, learning, designing and testing. Our operations was moved to the Dreamlab since we had support from the InnoWing, and also because it was closer to the water channel.

June 2019 – August 2019 (Year 3 Summer)

The mechanism was simply to heavy, and the design was changed and was made completely out of 3D printed plastic. A new flexible tail was designed as well, and we manage to get our record speed of 1.4m/s right before the water tunnel was demolished.

Mohd. Ibnul Alam Rashkih
Shen Zhong
Interns from SusTech (8 weeks)
1. Niu
2. Foo
3. Dawn

September 2018 – May 2019 (Year 3)

This is the period where we started off with testing the FAT tuna fish, and the new Stainless Steel Mechanism, and in the later part of the year, we made it skinny and pushed for 1m/s, which was much faster relative to the FAT TUNA FISH which weighed 20kg. Initiated Test with the spring mechanism, experimenting with different materials for tail fin design. Opened the group to undergraduate students under advice and assistance from Sidhant.

Timothy Ng
Tang Chen Cheng (Masters)
Henry (REU)
Reza (REU)
Undergrad helpers (February ’19 – May ’19):
1. Rick Law
2. Bryan
3. Saad
4. Sidhant Gupta
Honerable mentions: Shawn Yao and Hugh from the Robomasters group, and Dr. Chris Roberts

Year 4 (2019-Present): Hitting the Finish line

September 2019 – Present (Year 4 First Semester)

This was the semester of rapid growth, where the group truly saw a way to reach the speed. We faced different hurdles, something as simple as securing a testing site. We moved to the new EC52i motor, and made amendments to the original design, we manufactured two fishes, given the limited testing time, we tested as many variables in one go as possible. We spent quite some time recreating the 1.4 m/s, and finally accomplished that in Nov 2019 in Stanley Ho with a speed of 1.5m/s using the EC52i Brushless DC motor. We had record of 34s with it, until we realized we reached the limit.

SCAA, Jan 10 : 50m in 30.9s

Flora Ho, Jan 15 : 25m in 13.8s

SCAA, first Record Attempt, 21st: 50m in 30.33s

Shenzhen-CUHK, Second World Record Attempt 23rd Jan: 50m in 26.789s.

Members in this attempt

Liu Qi Meng
Mohd. Ibnul Alam Rashkih
Shen Zhong
Timothy Ng Ju Kin
Bionics and Control Lab
1. Diana
2. Li Jing
3. Zhu Zhi
4. Ya Fei
5. Feng Zhuolun
Undergraduate Helpers (BREED)
1. Saad (BREED head 2020)
2. Simran (Took some videos during our Stanley Ho Test)
3. Miscellaneous who helped with Sanding, small fish design