Study of Movements of Modular Snake Robot

Abstract

Animals have different types of movements. One of them is a serpentine movement. The serpentine movement is shared by eels, sea eels, rattlesnakes and garter snakes, that is not different from the function of a sinusoid or serpentine curve. These animals can move their bodies with strong power. In this research, we are interested in the movement of snakes because they can move on many surfaces. Serpentine movement is useful for exploration, especially in complex and risky areas such as nuclear power plants, a pipeline inspection, a variety of production systems, or space applications.

The idea of ​​having a nuclear power plant in Thailand motivates the Institute of Field Robotics (FIBO), King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), to design and build multi-joint robots. The SR-1 is a prototype that was used to study the serpentine movement. The Active Cord Mechanism (ACM) assumption, initiated by Prof. Shigeo Hirose from Tokyo Technology Institute, Japan, is implemented.

We have developed SR-1 step 2 that can move forward with joint torques in the serpentine movement. SR-1 has many supporting wheels under it. Each wheel does not help with movement but it allows the force within all muscles to overcome the friction in the body of the snake. SR-1 robot controls torsional forces within the robot’s muscles, causing the robot to push forward or backward.

Artificial intelligence can be applied to increase the potentiality of robots, for example, the obstacle avoidance theory by Potential Field Method is combined with the theory of Generalized Veronoi to determine the movement of the robot and other techniques to increase the capability.

FIBO received financial support from the Thailand Toray Science Foundation. The problem of this research led to the discovery of a control method in a very limited environment. The by-product is a prototype that will be used to study the pros and cons of it.