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Helical wave propagation motion for a snake robot on a vertical pipe containing a branch

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Abstract

Snake robots could be utilized in many fields because of their hyper-redundant properties, although there are still control problems when they are operated in complex environments. For example, a helical rolling motion has been used to climb a pipe. By using this kind of motion, a snake robot can move along the inside or outside of a pipe. However, this motion has limitations when the robot moves along a pipe containing a high gap or a branch point. In this study, we propose a type of motion for snake robots that involves wrapping around the outside of a pipe to overcome a branch point on it. This new motion uses a hyperbolic function to make a helical wave curve, which is then propagated by shifting the shape of the hyperbolic function along the body of the snake robot. The joint angles of the snake robot are derived by calculating the curvature and torsion of the curve on the basis of the formula of the continuous curve model. Finally, the results of simulations performed using the Robot Operating System and Gazebo programs are shown to validate the effectiveness of the new motion.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the ImPACT Program of the Council for Science, Technology, and Innovation (Cabinet Office, Government of Japan) and JSPS KAKENHI (Grant no. 15K05898).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushimanaka, Kita-ku, Okayama, Japan

    Wei Qi

  2. Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems, Okayama University, 3-1-1 Tsushimanaka, Kita-ku, Okayama, Japan

    Tetsushi Kamegawa & Akio Gofuku

Authors
  1. Wei Qi
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  2. Tetsushi Kamegawa
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  3. Akio Gofuku
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wei Qi.

Additional information

This work was presented in part at the 2nd International Symposium on Swarm Behavior and Bio-Inspired Robotics, Kyoto, October 29–November 1, 2017.

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Qi, W., Kamegawa, T. & Gofuku, A. Helical wave propagation motion for a snake robot on a vertical pipe containing a branch. Artif Life Robotics 23, 515–522 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10015-018-0479-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10015-018-0479-1

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