Coupled-actuation modular universal unit (MUU) of snake-like robot

摘要

In this paper,we design a new type of joint mechanism,which is a modular universal unit (we call it MUU hereinafter).By connecting them,we can build a 3 dimensional snake-like robot.Each MUU has three degrees of freedom;its coupled motion can be achieved by means of differential driving system.The advantage of the mechanism is that the MUU can change the arrangement of its 3 degrees of freedom in order to get larger torque in corresponding direction benefiting to climbing.The snake-like robot that consits of a series of MUU has more flexibility such as it can perform the natural snake locomotion.The unnatural motion can also be achieved by this mechanism,since the unit is reconfigurable.Other reconfigurable structures are also described and some applications are presented in this paper.