Control of 3-dimensional snake robots by using redundancy

In this paper, we consider the trajectory tracking control of a 3-dimensional (3D) snake robot by using redundancy. We discuss the motion control which accomplishes the trajectory tracking and other tasks, for example singular configuration avoidance, obstacle avoidance, etc., for the 3D snake robot. Features of the internal motion caused by the kinematic redundancy are considered and the dynamic model of the 3D snake robot is derived by introducing shape controllable points. By utilizing redundancy, we propose the controller which accomplishes the trajectory tracking as the main-task and several sub-tasks. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed controller.