Developments in Snake Robot Modeling and Locomotion

Snake robots may one day play a crucial role in search and rescue operations and fire-fighting where it may either be too narrow or to dangerous for personnel to operate. Properties such as high terrainability, redundancy, and the possibility of complete sealing of the body of the robot, make snake robots very interesting for practical applications and hence as a research topic. During the last ten to fifteen years, the published literature on snake robots has increased vastly. However, no thorough review of the theory presented in this period regarding mathematical modeling techniques and locomotion of snake robots has been found. The purpose of this paper is to give such a review. Both purely kinematic models and models including dynamics are investigated. The choice of modeling method is linked to snake robot design characteristics and locomotion approach. Different approaches to biologically inspired locomotion are also discussed