Title :
Snake-like robot driven by decentralized control scheme for scaffold-based locomotion
Author :
Sato, Takahide ; Kano, Takeshi ; Kobayashi, Ryo ; Ishiguro, Akio
Author_Institution :
Res. Inst. of Electr. Commun., Tohoku Univ., Sendai, Japan
Abstract :
Snakes actively utilize terrain irregularities and attain propulsion force by pushing their bodies against scaffolds. The objective of this study is to understand the mechanism underlying this locomotion on the basis of a synthetic approach. Our previous control scheme of a snake-like robot, in which the curvature derivative control method is combined with a reflexive mechanism using local pressures on the body wall, could not fully reproduce innate behavior of real snakes. In this study, we improve our previous control scheme. We show that the locomotion of a simulated robot with the improved control scheme is surprisingly in good agreement with the locomotion of a real snake. We also present a physical robot that we are currently developing.
Keywords :
decentralised control; mobile robots; propulsion; curvature derivative control method; decentralized control scheme; physical robot; propulsion force; scaffold-based locomotion; simulated robot locomotion; snake-like robot driven; synthetic approach; terrain irregularities; Distributed control; Force; Joints; Muscles; Propulsion; Robots; Springs;
Conference_Titel :
Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2012 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Vilamoura
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4673-1737-5
DOI :
10.1109/IROS.2012.6385930