Three-dimensional serpentine motion and lateral rolling by active cord mechanism ACM-R3

This paper describes the development and experiments of ACM-R3, which is a new version of the Active Cord Mechanism with three-dimensional mobility. This ACM-R3 is equipped with large passive wheels that wrap its body overall, and has frictional characteristics similar to snake-like skin. It is also equipped with radio control servomotors with gears added to them, held tightly by shell frames, so that it can move steadily and with high power With this robot, we realized fundamental two-dimensional serpentine locomotion, lateral rolling locomotion in "V", "U", or especially "S" shapes, and coupled locomotion, which employs both serpentine and lateral rolling at the same time. We also realized sinus-lifting locomotion, its mixture mode, 3D lateral rolling, and pedal wave.