An Intelligent Bionic Amphibious Turtle Robot With Visual-Tactile Fusion for Dynamic Terrain Adaptation

This study presents an intelligent bionic amphibious turtle robot (IBATR) featuring a three-degree-of-freedom bionic flipper mechanism, designed to achieve high maneuverability, agility, and adaptive locomotion in dynamic aquatic-terrestrial environments. Specifically, mechanical testing and hydrodynamic analysis validate the robot's operational capabilities in granular media and aquatic settings. Subsequently, Bayesian optimization generates energy-efficient gait parameters, enabling flexible motion under low-power constraints. To further bridge perception and action, a terrain classification framework is implemented by fusing visual data from an onboard camera and tactile feedback from pressure sensors, enhancing environmental adaptability. This framework utilizes a dual-stream convolutional neural network, achieving 99.17% classification accuracy across four terrestrial substrates and one aquatic condition. Experimental results demonstrate that terrain-aware gait adaptation improves energy efficiency by 19.1% and movement speed by 9.2% compared to static gait configurations. Field tests under wave disturbances further confirm the robot's capability for seamless land-water transitions. Collectively, this work advances biomimetic robotics by unifying perception-driven control, terrain-optimized actuation, and lightweight structural design, offering novel methodologies for resilient operations in complex amphibious environments.