Locomotion control for a modular snake robot over rough terrain

Abstract

This paper presents the design and implementation of a novel modular snake robot for rough terrain. The proposed snake robot is composed of several identical modules that are assembled together. It is more flexible and robust in harsh environments than traditional wheel and track based mobile robots. A cosine model is proposed to control the locomotion of the snake robot. The modular snake robot is able to creep at different speeds and in different directions by modulating the parameters of the cosine model. Its basic locomotion performance has been verified in experiments.