A Snake Robot Using Shape Memory Alloys

Author

Liu, C.Y. ; Liao, W.H.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Autom. & Comput.-Aided Eng., Hong Kong Chinese Univ., Shatin

fYear

2004

fDate

22-26 Aug. 2004

Firstpage

601

Lastpage

605

Abstract

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) are materials that have the ability to return to their predetermined shapes when heated. Using electrically heated SMAs, actuators can be designed for motion and force control. In this paper, the development and testing of a snake robot that uses SMAs as actuators is presented. An eight-segment robot is designed to move similar to the rectilinear motion of a natural snake. A pair of SMA wires are implemented into each segment. One of the SMA wires in each segment is heated at a time, and it acts like a muscle to change the shape of the segment. A sequence of activation for the SMA wires is designed for the robot to move forward and backward. A prototype robot is built, and it can move well with the desired locomotion

Keywords

actuators; alloys; force control; mobile robots; motion control; actuators; eight-segment robot; force control; motion control; shape memory alloys; snake robot; Actuators; Legged locomotion; Mobile robots; Prototypes; Robot sensing systems; Robotics and automation; Service robots; Shape memory alloys; Temperature; Wires; shape memory alloy; snake robot;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Robotics and Biomimetics, 2004. ROBIO 2004. IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Shenyang

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8614-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ROBIO.2004.1521848

Filename

1521848