Evaluation of Bio-Inspired Scales on Locomotion Performance of Snake-Like Robots

Abstract

SummaryThe unique frictional properties conferred by snake ventral scales inspired the engineering and fabrication of surrogate mechanisms for a robotic snake. These artificial, biologically inspired scales produce anisotropic body-ground forcing patterns with various locomotion surfaces. The benefits they confer to robotic snake-like locomotion were evaluated in experimental trials employing rectilinear, lateral undulation, and sidewinding gaits over several distinct surface types: carpet, inhomogeneous concrete and homogeneous concrete. Enhanced locomotive performance, with respect to net displacement and heading stability, was consistently measured in scenarios that utilized the engineered scales, over equivalent scenarios where the anisotropic effects of scales were absent.

Design and locomotion analysis of modular soft robot

“…Snakes can store elastic potential energy through their soft muscles and skin to help them move in different environments. And the scales on the skin of a snake are an integral part of the snake's locomotive capabilities [28]. Transeth et al [29] gave a survey of the various mathematical models and motion patterns presented for snake robots to help researchers study the locomotion of snake robots.…”

“…Snakes can store elastic potential energy through their soft muscles and skin to help them move in different environments. And the scales on the skin of a snake are an integral part of the snake’s locomotive capabilities [28]. Transeth et al.…”

Design and Construction of a Snake-Like Robot Implementing Rectilinear and Sidewinding Gait Motions

“…However, passive wheels may not allow a convenient control in unstructured environments, restraining these approaches to navigation and control tasks assessment mainly on flat terrain [10]. Recent models of snake robots have shown alternative design strategies, integrating active wheels with passive joints or treads to increase terrain accessibility, but the increment in these active mechanisms poses challenges while performing useful tasks such as climbing or rolling [11]. Wheelless or limbless variants are often designed with a high number of degrees of freedom as an advantage to the locomotion over rough terrain.…”

“…Moreover, navigation algorithms and additional sensors that acquire data from the terrain required. Despite the performance and potential advantages of these current platforms they still lag far behind actual biological snakes locomotion [11], [12]. The models currently employed are uniquely proposed to represent movements in controlled environments.…”