Preliminary studies on modular snake robots applied on de-mining tasks

Abstract

This paper addresses recent developments on Modular Snake Robots suited for applications on de-mining tasks. Inclusion of robotic platforms on the de-mining process will help tasks like the recognizance and perception of dangerous areas, minimizing human risk. As a mobile robot, the modular snake robot can move in a uneven terrain similar to a mined scenario. That is why, the main research efforts have been done on locomotion. Several contributions on this area are reported including gaits like: closed chain rolling, lateral rolling and a gait that use a helix shape both on the outside of cylinders. Another gait studied regards the swing movement of a modular robot chain hanging from one of its end modules. Contributions on robot architecture are reported here, including a distributed model predictive control and a multi-camera and sensor fusion. The perception problem of these robots also are researched by our lab and a pair of developments are shown here.