Climbing and descending control of a snake robot on step environments based on kinematics

Abstract

This paper proposes a snake robot control method for climbing and descending a step. On a multi-plane step environment, it is necessary for locomotion to transfer from one plane to another. A snake robot can move with touching several planes as its body is long and thin. In this paper, we propose a control method for accomplishing trajectory tracking of a snake robot on a step environment. The control method consists of the tracking controller, the shifting method of the robot's part connecting between the planes, and the active lifting for controlling the shape of the robot. Simulations and experiments demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed controller and the shifting method of the connecting part of the robot's body.