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A snake robot with a contact force measurement system for obstacle-aided locomotion

Abstract

A snake robot can traverse cluttered and irregular environments by using irregularities around its body as push-points to aid the propulsion. This is denoted obstacle-aided locomotion and requires the snake robot to have two features: 1) a smooth exterior surface combined with 2) a contact force sensing system. These two features are characteristic of biological snakes, but have received limited attention in snake robot designs so far. This paper describes the development of a new snake robot aimed at meeting both these requirements. The paper details the design and implementation of the snake robot, presents experimental results that validate the function of the contact force measurement system, and demonstrates some of the motion capabilities of the robot.
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Category

Academic article

Language

English

Author(s)

  • Pål Liljeback
  • Kristin Ytterstad Pettersen
  • Øyvind Stavdahl

Affiliation

  • SINTEF
  • Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Year

2010

Published in

IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

ISSN

1050-4729

Page(s)

683 - 690

View this publication at Norwegian Research Information Repository