Amphibian Robot

Haroon Khan, Shaikh Aquib , Asad Ali ,

Arif Shaikh.
3rd year diploma in electronics engineering.
Abdul Razzak Kalsekar Polytechnic (Panvel).
Kharoon96@gmail.com
Asadalishaikh101@gmail.com

Abstract
The Amphibian robot is a robot which can operate
on land as well as on water. The word amphibian
means a thing or creature which is capable to survive
on land as well as on water. The idea is to make a
four wheeled robotic vehicle with a water resistant
body enclosing the electronic circuit, battery and
motors and hence, making the robot capable to
operate
on water . It can be operated using
Wireless communication .This paper will describe the
mechanical design, motors used and the concept of
the project .

Mechanical Design

buoyant, so a light weight material like acrylic with 2

mm thickness, having density of 1.18g/cm3, is best.
Each part of the robot has grooves in it, so that
each part fits in properly. This provides extra strength
to the robot. Acrylic parts are joined together using
chloroform, which works as an
adhesive for acrylic .

Understanding the design

Terrestrial locomotion
The Robot moves on land simply with wheels. Four
wheels are attached at each corner of the robot. Two
wheels at each side move in same direction always.
The robot moves in front and back when each pair
moves in same side. It turns right when right pair
moves in back and left in front direction and vice
versa.Thus, the robot goes straight when all wheels
move in samedirection an also the same speed
. It turns when the wheels rotate in opposite direction
or both pairs dont have same speed.

Wheels
The wheels are made of wood, having a diameter of
21 cm. Wheels of large radius are needed for better
ground clearance, so that bot can travel in rough
terrain without damaging any of its parts. The wheels
have wooden blades. They help the robot to push
water effectively.

Locomotion on water surface

The main objective of this project is to make an

amphibian robot, which can travel on land as well as
on water.The part where we need to build a robot that
can transverse on land is quite easy. But as we need it
to float on water, we design the bot in such a way that
it is slightly positive buoyant. The robots body is
made of acrylic, as we need to make it positively

The robot can easily move on water surface with the

help of propellers present at its back. To make the
robot advance on water surface we need to keep it
floating. Thus, the buoyant force should be greater
than weight of the body.

Sealing

The biggest glitch faced in building this robot is

sealing it. Sealing of a water bot at low cost is very
difficult and surely very important. As and when the
water rises inside the robot, the fear of shortcircuiting in the electrical circuit also rises. Thus,
sealing is the most important bit of building this
robot.
Fevikwik is put at the edges of the base from
the inside and then the edges are applied
with Bondtite. Silicon sealant is applied on
the edges from outside.
The holes drilled for screwing the motor are
all filled with bondtite.
For the central propellers motor a separate
acrylic casing is made with two holes to take
out its wires. It is also sealed using bondtite
and silicon sealant.
The boundaries of motor are sealed using
silicon sealant from inside and outside.
The shaft is sealed using O-ring and grease.
A rubber with hole in center, is put in each
screw, to prevent water from hole.
The edges of upper casing are sealed by
bondtite and so is the circumference of PVC
pipe.

1000RPM 12V DC motors with Metal

Gearbox and Metal Gears
1000 RPM base motor
6mm Dia shaft with M3 thread hole
Gearbox diameter 37 mm.
Motor Diameter 28.5 mm
Length 63 mm without shaft
Shaft length 30mm
180gm weight
6-8kgcm torque
No-load current = 600 mA, Load current =
upto 3A(Max)

2. For the back propellers

Electronics
High torque motors
These motors are required in the amphibian bot so
that it can successfully traverse rough terrains and
readily drift on water surface and also go underneath
water surface.
Three different types of High Torque DC motors have
been used
in the robot:-

SPECIFICATIONS

1000RPM 12V DC motors with Metal

Gearbox and Metal Gears
1000 RPM base motor
6mm Dia shaft with M3 thread hole
Gearbox diameter 37 mm.
Motor Diameter 28.5 mm
Length 63 mm without shaft
Shaft length 30mm
180gm weight
2kgcm torque
No-load current = 300 mA, Load current =
upto 1.5A(Max)

Relays
1. For the wheels
1000 rpm high torque motor
SPECIFICATIONS

A relay is an electrically operated switch. They use

anelectromagnet to operate a switching mechanism
mechanically. Relays are used where it is necessary
to control a circuit by a lowpowersignal (with
complete electrical isolation between control and

controlled circuits), or where several circuits must be

controlled by one signal. We use a Double Pole
Double Throw(DPDT) Relay in our circuit.

the name suggests, uses radio frequency to send

signals.

Circuit symbol for DPDT Relay

Power source
Lead acid battery

The system allows one way communication between

two nodes, namely, transmission and reception. The
RF module has been used in conjunction with a set of
four channel encoder/decoder ICs. Here HT12E &
HT12D have been used as encoder and decoder
respectively. The encoder converts the parallel inputs
(from the remote switches) into serial set of signals.
These signals are serially transferred through RF to
the reception point. The decoder is used after the RF
receiver to decode the serial format and retrieve the
original signals as outputs.

Conclusion
The battery is used to supply power to all the motors
present in the robot. It has maximum voltage of 13.5
volts. The robot can remain active, with all its motors
working, for about 20 to 25 minutes.

Wireless communication
This circuit utilizes the RF module (Tx/Rx) for
making a wireless remote, which could be used to
drive an output from a distant place. RF module, as

This type of robot can be further modified and used

for surveillance and in military purpose because of its
ability to travel in different surfaces and conditions.
If this implementation is successful there are
possible modifications that can be made on this robot
by installing different sensors and additional circuitry

References
1) RF based wireless remote by ST Robotics
2) Robokits.co.in
3) IIT Kanpur project Amphi bot