Ladder Climbing with a Snake Robot

Takemori, Tatsuya; Tanaka, Motoyasu; Matsuno, Fumitoshi

doi:10.1109/iros.2018.8594411

Cited by 52 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The system configuration of a snake robot is illustrated in Figure 8 . We used the snake robot developed in Takemori et al ( 2018b ). The snake robot has a module configuration, which has a joint and link covered by an exterior.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Unified Approach to the Motion Design for a Snake Robot Negotiating Complicated Pipe Structures

et al. 2021

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A unified method for designing the motion of a snake robot negotiating complicated pipe structures is presented. Such robots moving inside pipes must deal with various “obstacles,” such as junctions, bends, diameter changes, shears, and blockages. To surmount these obstacles, we propose a method that enables the robot to adapt to multiple pipe structures in a unified way. This method also applies to motion that is necessary to pass between the inside and the outside of a pipe. We designed the target form of the snake robot using two helices connected by an arbitrary shape. This method can be applied to various obstacles by designing a part of the target form specifically for given obstacles. The robot negotiates obstacles under shift control by employing a rolling motion. Considering the slip between the robot and the pipe, the model expands the method to cover cases where two helices have different properties. We demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method in various experiments.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They used their proposed method to design a target form that required the robot to partially lift the body around a flange on a pipe and achieved movement over the flange. Movements over rough terrain and climbing up ladders (Takemori et al, 2018b ) were also accomplished.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unified Approach to the Motion Design for a Snake Robot Negotiating Complicated Pipe Structures

et al. 2021

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“…Similar to snakes, snake robots are inherently stable when they use planar gaits on flat surfaces [23,24] but face stability challenges when they deform out of plane in more complex environments [12][13][14][25][26][27]. In branch-like terrain and confined spaces and on sandy slopes, snake robots also maintain stability by gripping or bracing against the surfaces or depressed sand [12,[28][29][30]. Surmounting large, smooth obstacles like steps has often been achieved by using a simple, follow-the-leader gait [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41], in which the body deforms nearly within a vertical plane with little lateral deformation and hence a narrow base of ground support.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robotic modelling of snake traversing large, smooth obstacles reveals stability benefits of body compliance

2020

R. Soc. open sci.

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Snakes can move through almost any terrain. Although their locomotion on flat surfaces using planar gaits is inherently stable, when snakes deform their body out of plane to traverse complex terrain, maintaining stability becomes a challenge. On trees and desert dunes, snakes grip branches or brace against depressed sand for stability. However, how they stably surmount obstacles like boulders too large and smooth to gain such "anchor points" is less understood. Similarly, snake robots are challenged to stably traverse large, smooth obstacles for search and rescue and building inspection. Our recent study discovered that snakes combine body lateral undulation and cantilevering to stably traverse large steps. Here, we developed a snake robot with this gait and snake-like anisotropic friction and used it as a physical model to understand stability principles. The robot traversed steps as high as a third of its body length rapidly and stably. However, on higher steps, it was more likely to fail due to more frequent rolling and flipping over, which was absent in the snake with a compliant body. Adding body compliance reduced the robot's roll instability by statistically improving surface contact, without reducing speed. Besides advancing understanding of snake locomotion, our robot achieved high traversal speed surpassing most previous snake robots and approaching snakes, while maintaining high traversal probability.

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“…Takemori et al implemented locomotion control over irregular ground, such as a flanged pipe or rubble terrain, by utilizing a dynamic model without considering side-slipping [38,39]. Additionally, Takemori et al designed a control system to fit configurations of a snake-like robot to targets, by connecting simple shapes, such as straight lines, arc shapes, and spirals [40]. In the work by the authors of [40], ladder climbing locomotion was implemented by the proposed method [40].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, Takemori et al designed a control system to fit configurations of a snake-like robot to targets, by connecting simple shapes, such as straight lines, arc shapes, and spirals [40]. In the work by the authors of [40], ladder climbing locomotion was implemented by the proposed method [40]. For another example, Tanaka et al proposed a shape-control system for a snake-like robot which preserves the head coordinate [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Locomotion Control of Snake-Like Robot with Rotational Elastic Actuators Utilizing Observer

et al. 2019

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The purpose of this paper is designing a head control system capable of adapting to passive side-slipping. The environments in which snake-like robots are expected to be utilized generally have ground surface conditions with nonuniform frictional coefficients. In such conditions, the passive wheels of the snake-like robot have a chance of side-slipping. To locomote the snake-like robot dexterously, a control system which adapts to such side-slipping is desired. There are two key points to realizing such a system: First, a dynamic model capable of representing the passive side-slipping must be formulated. A solution for the first key point is to develop a switching dynamic model for the snake-like robot, which switches depending on the occurrence of the side-slipping, by utilizing a projection method. The second key point is to adapt the control system’s behavior to side-slipping. An idea for such a solution is to include the side-slipping velocity in the weighting matrices. An algorithm to estimate the occurrence of side-slipping and the particular side-slipping link is constructed, to formulate the dynamic model depending on the actual side-slipping situation. The effectiveness of the designed Luenberger observer and the head control system for side-slipping adaptation is verified through numerical simulation.

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Ladder Climbing with a Snake Robot

Cited by 52 publications

References 13 publications

Unified Approach to the Motion Design for a Snake Robot Negotiating Complicated Pipe Structures

Unified Approach to the Motion Design for a Snake Robot Negotiating Complicated Pipe Structures

Robotic modelling of snake traversing large, smooth obstacles reveals stability benefits of body compliance

Locomotion Control of Snake-Like Robot with Rotational Elastic Actuators Utilizing Observer

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