Abstract: Amphibious robots are becoming increasingly important for civilian, scientific, and environmental missions. They are widely used in disaster rescue, ecosystem monitoring, and entertainment. However, some have two different locomotion systems that need to be changed manually to fulfill both swimming in the water and moving on land, which may reduce their efficiency and reliability. Applying bioinspiration and biomimetics, many recently developed amphibious robots can undertake various tasks in complex amphibious environments with high mobility, flexibility, and energy efficiency. This review overviews the latest developments in amphibious robots, emphasizing biomimetic design concepts, backbone driving mechanisms, and typical applications. The performance indices of amphibious robots mimicking 13 different natural sources are compared, based on 10 different propulsion principles/modes, travel speed, working efficiency, maneuverability, and stability. Finally, the current challenges and perspectives of amphibious bio-inspired robots are discussed. This article summarizes the current types of amphibious robots and their movement and behavior solutions. The design concepts and operating mechanisms of amphibious robots reviewed here can be readily applied to other robotic studies.

Key words: Amphibious robots; Biomimetic robots; Bionic technology; Intelligent robots; Robotics

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