A cooperative strategy for snake robots to overcome the extreme terrain

Abstract

The mobility of a snake robot is limited by factors such as its length, mass distribution, and torque output. To overcome these limitations, the cooperation between two snake robots can be an effective strategy, inspired by the hand-in-hand interaction of humans. In this article, the cooperative strategies for the double snake robots are presented to improve their mobility in some extreme environments. In order to achieve the force interaction between snake robots, we introduce a docking strategy, which enables them to cross ditches and climb slopes. We further study these cooperative strategies and demonstrate their effectiveness through experiments. The snake robots can dock with each other and cross ditches with a width of half the length of each robot. Additionally, the robot at the top of a slope can help the robot at the bottom climb a steep slope of 63.2∘, which would be difficult to achieve with a single snake robot.