Fast 3D Simulation of Snake Robot Motion

Abstract

Certain control methods for hyperredundant snake robots require high-speed simulation. The standard approach to simulation is by solving the time-dependent differential equations that describe the robot, a procedure which is computationally expensive. Instead, we propose a simplified snake robot model which avoids dynamics, and is suitable for on-line real-time simulation. For slow-moving snake robots, this model accounts for the three important forces: friction, gravity, and contact forces. It is powerful enough to handle sliding over elastic surfaces, rolling with slippage, and to detect unstable positions. Computation can be distributed over the robot, so that pertinent calculations are localized.