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About

Erlend Helgerud is a roboticist whose work centers on the design, control, and locomotion of highly compliant, low-cost snake robots. His primary research areas include series elastic actuation, modular robot design, and perception-driven obstacle-aided locomotion (POAL). Helgerud’s major contribution is the development of **Serpens**, an open-source, modular snake robot that combines series elastic torque-controlled actuators with a screw-less assembly mechanism, making advanced compliant robotics more accessible. His most-cited paper (23 citations) demonstrates how Serpens uses stereoscopic vision and elastic joints to achieve POAL in cluttered environments, a key step toward practical snake robots for search-and-rescue and inspection. Another highly cited work (15 citations) details the robot’s low-cost, open-source design, addressing a critical gap in the field where elastic snake robots were previously expensive and proprietary. Helgerud also contributed a robust two-feedback-loop position control algorithm (7 citations) that improves the performance of compliant, low-cost series elastic actuators. By prioritizing affordability, modularity, and open-source availability, Helgerud’s work empowers other researchers to replicate and build upon his designs, accelerating progress in snake-like robotic locomotion and elastic actuation.