Motion Control of a 3D Snake Robot on a Surface

Abstract

Snake like robot has a lot of attention for its various tasks such as grasping, locomotion, manipulation, and so on. Recent researches on locomotion control mainly deals with motion on 2D plane even if 3D model is used. This paper is focused on kinematic motion of 3D snake on a smooth surface. We assume that every part of the body contact with the surface and there is no side slip. Since the shape of the body depends on that of surface, we first analyze kinematic motion of 2D continuum. And then we derive the basic kinematic strategy for 3D model based on approximation of continuum.