Abstract
This paper presents a motion planning framework for three-dimensional body shape control of snake robots. Whereas conventional motion planning approaches define the body shape of snake robots in terms of their individual joint angles, the proposed framework allows the body shape to be specified in terms of Cartesian coordinates in the environment of the robot. This approach simplifies motion planning since Cartesian coordinates are more intuitively mapped to the overall body shape of the snake robot. The paper demonstrates the applicability of the framework for realizing different types of three-dimensional motion patterns.