Studies on lateral rolling locomotion of a snake robot

A reconfigurable modular snake robot has been developed, which can not only move on a plane but aIso achieve some f-dimensional motions while reconfigured. Control equations of 3-dimensional locomotion were established by the composition of two bending motions in mutual orthogonal plane. Three types of lateral rolling locomotion, flapping, linear rolling and curved rolling, were achieved by controlling the amplitudes and the number of two waves in the two bending motions. Using the three types of locomotion the snake robot can realize net lateral translation, alternation of its contact base and rolling over some obstacles. The lateral rolling locomotion obtains its driving force through the interaction with the environment. The rolling shape and its direction depend on the transferring direction and phase difference of the two waves respectively.