Serpentine robot locomotion: An implementation through piecewise sine function

Abstract

Locomotion in a hyper redundant serpentine robot is generated through body undulations. These body undulations are often three dimensional in nature and are combinations of two body waves on two orthogonal planes passing through snake's body. In an articulated serpentine robot these waves are generated through actuation of joints. This paper presents a new formalism for meaningful actuation of the joints through piecewise sine functions to achieve serpentine robot locomotion, moves and postures. These issues have been critically examined through experimental serpentine robot specially designed and extensively used to compare various gaits generated through simulation and validated by experimentation.