Aiming at the key issues in the overall development of snakelike robots, including material selection, structure design and motion realization, a new multi-joint snakelike robot was developed. This snakelike robot was composed of 11 two-degree-of-freedom orthogonal joints, which could achieve three-dimensional high biomimetic motion while ensuring flexibility. The basic gaits of snakelike robot such as meandering, wriggling and tumbling were designed by using the serpentine curve, and an improved obstacle surmounting gait was further proposed. At the same time, the gaits of the snakelike robot were simulated in the V-REP software, and the motion trajectories and efficiency of different gaits were compared. Finally, through the gait experiment of the snakelike robot prototype, the influence of each control parameter in the gait model on the motion waveform and speed of the snakelike robot was analyzed, and the reliability of the body structure and control system of the snakelike robot was verified. The research results have important theoretical significance and practical guiding value for realizing the gait planning and motion control of snakelike robots.
Received: 29 December 2022
Published: 04 September 2023
Fig.1 Structure diagram of multi-joint snakelike robot
Fig.2 Structure of orthogonal joint of snakelike robot
Fig.3 Head and tail structure of snakelike robot
Fig.4 Joint shell structure of snakelike robot
Fig.5 Head and tail shell structure of snakelike robot
Fig.6 Snakelike robot joints made of different materials
Fig.7 Flow of motion control for snakelike robot
Fig.8 Lobot Servo Control software interface
Fig.9 Remote control process of snakelike robot
Fig.10 Snakelike robot prototype
参数
量值
关节数量
11个
关节外壳直径
95 mm
总长度
1 122 mm
总质量
2 055 g
Table 1Related technical parameters of snakelike robot prototype
Fig.11 Fitting diagram of simplified Serpeniod curve
Fig.12 Variation curves of yaw joint angle of snakelike robot during meandering locomotion
Fig.13 Variation curves of yaw joint angle of snakelike robot with different horizontal angles
Fig.14 Variation curves of pitch joint angle of snakelike robot during wriggling locomotion
Fig.15 Variation curves of joint angle of snakelike robot during tumbling locomotion
Fig.16 Variation curves of pitch joint angle of snakelike robot during obstacle surmounting locomotion
Fig.17 Motion trajectories of centroid of snakelike robot under different gaits
Fig.18 Meandering locomotion trajectories of snakelike robot under different amplitudes
Fig.19 Meandering locomotion trajectories of snakelike robot under different periods
Fig.20 Simulation result of obstacle surmounting process of snakelike robot
时间
t/s
关节0
关节2
关节4
关节6
关节8
关节10
1
-30
-15
15
30
15
-15
2
30
15
-15
-30
-15
15
Table 2Setting of yaw joint angle of snakelike robot in meandering locomotion
Fig.21 Experimental site of snakelike robot in meandering locomotion
时间t/s
关节1
关节3
关节5
关节7
关节9
1
0
-15
-30
15
0
2
0
15
30
-15
0
Table 3Setting of pitch joint angle of snakelike robot in wriggling locomotion
Fig.22 Experimental site of snakelike robot in wriggling locomotion
时间t/s
关节0
关节1
关节2
关节3
关节4
关节5
1
30
0
-30
0
30
0
2
0
30
0
-30
0
30
3
-30
0
30
0
-30
0
4
0
-30
0
30
0
-30
5
30
0
-30
0
30
0
时间t/s
关节6
关节7
关节8
关节9
关节10
1
-30
0
30
0
-30
2
0
-30
0
30
0
3
30
0
-30
0
30
4
0
30
0
-30
0
5
-30
0
30
0
30
Table 4Setting of joint angles for snakelike robot in tumbling locomotion
Fig.23 Experimental site of snakelike robot in tumbling locomotion
越障种类
时间t/s
关节1
关节3
关节5
关节7
关节9
头部越障
1
-36
-27
36
-36
-36
2
-36
0
27
-22.5
-36
3
-36
0
0
0
0
身体越障
1
22.5
-27
36
-36
-36
2
-9
-27
27
27
0
3
22.5
0
0
0
0
尾部越障
1
0
36
8
-27
27
2
-31.5
7
31.5
22.5
27
3
0
0
0
0
27
Table 5Setting of pitch joint angle of snakelike robot in obstacle surmounting locomotion
Fig.24 Experiment site of snakelike robot in obstacle surmounting locomotion
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