Body shape control of a snake-like robot based on phase oscillator network

Abstract

This paper addresses a problem of locomotion control of a snake-like robot. The discontinuity of the input signal during transition of locomotion is not desirable which may cause a large sliding and slippage. To overcome this problem, a method that produce a smooth transition of the body shape of a snake-like robot is introduced by adopting CPG-based control. Body shape transition is important for a snake-like robot locomotion to adapt to different space widths especially for rescuing task in a hazardous environment. By changing the phase difference of the CPG outputs instantly, the phase transition will result in a sharp point or discontinuity of the input signal which will lead to a jerky movement of the snake-like robot. In this paper, we propose a novel way of producing smooth body shape transition of a snake-like robot i.e., by introducing an activation function. This method is simple and easy to be implemented for robot's control. Simulation results and torque analysis confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.