Abstract
In this paper, a biomimetic approach based on central pattern generator (CPG) is utilized to control body shape of a snake-like robot for serpentine locomotion. The CPG model is based on the phase oscillator, in which only one control parameter is used to control the locomotion. The novelty of the approach is the online body shape transition of the snake-like robot which is useful in adapting to various space width especially for rescuing and searching tasks. The major parts of this paper include: 1) a brief introduction of the phase oscillator model and the proposed CPG network, 2) a proposed activation function to control the body shape transition of the snake-like robot, and 3) a turning motion and straight-path motion control strategy. Simulations are used to demonstrate its effectiveness with explanation on setup and control strategy for future experiment on physical snake-like robot.
