A Study of Energy-Efficient and Optimal Locomotion in a Pneumatic Artificial Muscle-Driven Snake Robot

Abstract

This paper presents a study of energy efficiency and kinematic-based optimal design locomotion of a pneumatic artificial muscle (PAM)-driven snake-like robot. Although snake-like robots have several advantages over wheeled and track-wheeled mobile robots, their low energy-locomotion has limited their applications in long-range and outdoor fields. This work continues our previous efforts in designing and prototyping a muscle-driven snake-like robot to address their low energy efficiency limitation. An electro-pneumatic control hardware was developed to control the robot’s locomotion and a control algorithm for generating the lateral undulation gait. The energy efficiency of a single muscle (i.e., PAM), a single 2-link module of the robot, and a 6-link snake robot were also studied. Moreover, the power consumption was derived for the snake locomotion to determine the cost of transportation as the index for measuring the performance of the robot. Finally, the performance of the robot was analyzed and compared to similar models. Our analysis showed that the power consumption efficiency for our robot is 0.21, which is comparable to the reported range of 0.016–0.32 from other robots. In addition, the cost of transportation for our robot was determined to be 0.19 compared to the range of 0.01–0.75 reported for the other mobile robots. Finally, the range of motion for the joints of the robot is ±30∘, which is comparable to the reported range of motion of other snake-like robots, i.e., 25∘–45∘.

Design, Modelling, and Control of Continuum Arms with Pneumatic Artificial Muscles: A Review

“…Notably, the robot demonstrated its practical capabilities by performing a pick-and-place experiment. Lopez et al's research [41] explores energy-efficient kinematic design in PAM-driven snake-inspired robot locomotion. Although the observed inefficiency in achieving desired forward velocities raises concerns for real-world applications, the muscle-driven approach offers the advantage of bio-inspired adaptability for navigating complex terrains.…”

Combined Soft Grasping and Crawling Locomotor Robot for Exterior Navigation of Tubular Structures

“…To achieve higher maneuverability while navigating complex shape structures, the recent advancements in soft robotics enhance the capabilities of robots by incorporating compliant and structurally deformable bodies that generate a higher complex motion compared to their rigid counterparts and adapt to different environments, tasks, while reducing the possibility of damaging the structures [11,12]. In particular, textile-based (fabrics) and pneumatic artificial muscles (i.e., McKibben actuators) are capable of providing a high load-to-weight ratio [4,13,14]. Despite many research efforts in soft robots' locomotion and grasping, two growing research areas in soft robotics, the combination of locomotion and grasping capabilities in one soft robotic platform has not been sufficiently studied [4,[15][16][17][18].…”