A study of Active-Wheel snake robot locomotion gaits

Abstract

This research aims to study the locomotion of a wheel snake robot in different environments. The wheel snake robot was developed in the form of Active-Wheel Active-Joint to easily create mobile forms for use in variety of different operating conditions. Using the motion by the force of the wheel, waves are created by the robot to generate friction conditions that can propel the robot in the desired direction. In this work we experimented with three types of environment: a flat ground, a slope and a tight corner. The experiment shows that the Active-Wheel Sinusoidal (AWS) gait is the best solution for traveling on a flat ground and a slope. For turning in a tight corner, the robot should use the Active-Joint Active-Wheel (AJAW) gait. By adjusting parameters such as motion shape and motor driving speed, the experiment showed that the L-shape gait with varied drive speed required the smallest turning area compared to other gaits that were tested.