Motion investigation of a snake robot with different scale geometry and coefficient of friction
Most snakes in nature have scales at their ventral sides. The anisotropic frictional coefficient of the ventral side of the snakes, as well as snake robots, is considered to be responsible for their serpentine kind of locomotion. However, little work has been done on snake scales so far to make a...
| Summary: | Most snakes in nature have scales at their ventral sides. The anisotropic frictional coefficient
of the ventral side of the snakes, as well as snake robots, is considered to be responsible for their
serpentine kind of locomotion. However, little work has been done on snake scales so far to make
any guidelines for designing snake robots. This paper presents an experimental investigation on the
effects of artificial scale geometry on the motion of snake robots that move in a serpentine manner.
The motion of a snake robot equipped with artificial scales with different geometries was recorded
using a Kinect camera under different speeds of the actuating motors attached to the links of the
robot. The results of the investigation showed that the portion of the scales along the central line of
the robot did not contributed to the locomotion of the robot, rather, it is the parts of the scales along
the lateral edges of the robot that contributed to the motion. It was also found that the lower frictional
ratio at low slithering speeds made the snake robot motion unpredictable. The scales with ridges
along the direction of the snake body gave better and more stable motion. However, to get the peg
effect, the scales needed to have a very high lateral to forward friction ratio, otherwise, significant
side slipping occurred, resulting in unpredictable motion |
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