Design and Control of a Snake Robot With a Gripper for Inspection and Maintenance in Narrow Spaces

Abstract

This letter presents a snake robot with a gripper for inspection and maintenance in narrow spaces. The proposed robot has a gripper equipped with a camera and a laser distance sensor that can inspect the surroundings and grasp objects. The control methods of the proposed robot consist of three parts: 1) A double-layer controller based on central pattern generator (CPG) realizes the locomotion of the robot in narrow spaces. 2) A circular posture is proposed to avoid rollover and improve the payload capacity when the robot is grasping or manipulating an object on either side. 3) A three-stage grasping strategy is proposed to realize semi-automatic grasping operations. A prototype of the robot has been developed and the effectiveness of the proposed control methods have been verified in the payload capacity test, target grasping test, and pick-transport-place experiment.