Simplified Motion Modeling for Snake Robots
Abstract
We present a general method of estimating a snake robot’s motion over flat ground using only knowledge of the robot’s shape changes over time. Estimating world motion of snake robots is often difficult because of the complex way a robot’s cyclic shape changes (gaits) interact with the sur- rounding environment. By using the virtual chassis to separate the robot’s internal shape changes from its external motions through the world, we are able to construct a motion model based on the differential motion of the robot’s modules between time steps. In this way, we effectively treat the snake robot like a wheeled robot where the bottom-most modules propel the robot in much the way the bottom of the wheels would propel the chassis of a car. Experimental results using a 16-DOF snake robot are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of this method for a variety of gaits that have been designed to traverse flat ground.
BibTeX
@conference{Enner-2012-7294,author = {Florian Enner and David Rollinson and Howie Choset},
title = {Simplified Motion Modeling for Snake Robots},
booktitle = {Proceedings of (ICRA) International Conference on Robotics and Automation},
year = {2012},
month = {May},
pages = {4216 - 4221},
}