Bridging the Gap between Bio-Inspired Steering and Locomotion: A Braitenberg 3a Snake Robot

Abstract

Braitenberg vehicles are simple models of animal motion towards, or away from, a stimulus (light, sound, chemicals, etc). They have been widely used in robotics to implement target reaching and avoidance behaviors based on different types of sensors. While the seminal work of Braitenberg used wheeled vehicles to illustrate the principles of animal steering, few attempts have been made at combining these steering level controllers with locomotion mechanism other than actuated wheels. This paper presents the first implementation of this biologically inspired steering controller in a snake-like robot with non-actuated wheels and actuated joints. The sinusoidal gait of the snake is modulated following the principles of the Braitenberg vehicle 3α using two sensors symmetrically located on the head. The effectiveness of this bio-inspired controller is shown through simulations where the snake orients its head and body with the direction of the stimulus gradient, and reaches the stimulus maximum within some range. This paper represents one of the first steps towards connecting bio-inspired sensor-based steering mechanisms and bio-inspired locomotion, and shows that existing theoretical results of Braitenberg vehicles with actuated wheels also apply to a snake-like robot with non-actuated wheels.