A spring-like pipe climbing gait for the snake robot

Abstract

In this paper, a spring-like type of robot climbing pipe gait is proposed for solving the problem that the existing climbing pipe have a high demand of continuity of the pipe. The gait is based on a mode that the snake robot model stretches like a spring. In order to realize the above-mentioned gait, a spatial curve with a functional partition is designed. Then, based on the general parameter, a discretization method of the curve with variable curvature and torsion is used to discretize the curve. Finally, the mode of motion for the gait is designed by the division of functional areas. And simulation results verify that the gait can complete the tasks of climbing over a stepped shaft and a discontinuous pipe.