Design of a snake robot based on modular joint

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel snake robot based on modular joints by harmonic reducer, which have position, torque, acceleration, angular motion, vision and temperature information sensing capabilities. The FPGA chip is used as the joint controller, and the computational powerful computing stick is used as the robot controller in the snake head. The communication between the joint controller and the robot controller is realized through the Point to Point High Speed Serial Communication System (PPSeCo). The prototype was developed and tested for joint output torque, joint desired trajectory and side motion.