Snake robots play an important role in social services and military needs

摘要

Intelligent robotic systems have gradually penetrated into the fields of social services and military reconnaissance with the rapid economic development. Snake robots, as multi-redundant bionic robots, play an indispensable and important role in public life and military needs.1Takemori T. Tanaka M. Matsuno F. Adaptive helical rolling of a snake robot to a straight pipe with irregular cross-sectional shape.IEEE Transactions on Robotics. 2022; https://doi.org/10.1109/TRO.2022.3189224Crossref Scopus (4) Google Scholar These robots have been widely favored and highly regarded by the academia and industry because of 1) their small size and flexibility, thereby easily entering small spaces for work, 2) their ability to carry a variety of equipment for disaster rescue and military reconnaissance, and 3) their variety of movement modes, which can adapt to various complex terrain environments. In marine exploration, the snake robot’s inherent elongated body shape and flexible movement gait have broken through traditional underwater robots’ bottleneck. These robots can operate at 1000 feet below sea level or even deeper, greatly protecting the life safety of divers. In intelligent medicines, the shrunken snake robot can enter blood vessels to identify the cause of disease and provide safe and immediate treatment solutions for patients. Search and rescue operations following earthquakes and fires are highly difficult and dangerous in natural disasters. Accordingly, deploying snake robots for search and rescue operations can be advantageous. In the military, snake robots can provide reliable military reconnaissance in complex and dangerous battlefield environments. Snake robots can free people from heavy, unsafe, and monotonous work environments and replace them in dangerous situations to complete operations, as shown in Figure 1. Such robots constantly provide services and convenience to human civilization.2Cao Z.C. Zhang D. Zhou M.C. Modeling and control of hybrid 3-D gaits of snake-like robots.IEEE Transact. Neural Networks Learn. Syst. 2021; 32: 4603-4612Crossref PubMed Scopus (7) Google Scholar With the continuous development of science and technology, people increasingly pursue the convenience and efficiency of life.3Liao B. Zang H.B. Chen M.Y. et al.Soft rod-climbing robot inspired by winding locomotion of snake.Soft Robot. 2020; 7: 500-511Crossref PubMed Scopus (76) Google Scholar However, some jobs are still dangerous and are difficult for humans to perform. Accordingly, scientists have developed snake robots inspired by biological snakes to solve such problems. These notable achievements are as follows: 1) Eelume, an underwater snake robot jointly developed by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Kongsberg Maritime, can reach deep-sea areas that are difficult for humans to reach and complete underwater equipment inspection, valve adjustment, and pipe cleaning to replace traditional large maintenance equipment. 2) Tesla has introduced a snake robot, given the popularity of electric cars. (3) COBRA, a snake-like robot developed by the University of Nottingham, can be used for aero-engine inspection and repair and can navigate through narrow spaces at will. 4) The magnetically controlled snake-like robot developed by MIT can crawl into the internal tissues of the human body. On-board sensors are used to clear blood clots in patients with aneurysm or stroke. This approach effectively relieves the patient’s pain and shortens the patient’s recovery time. Snake robots can solve many societal challenges. However, improving these robots’ motion accuracy is a pressing issue. Snake robots have played an irreplaceable role in disaster assistance in several countries.4Liu J.D. Tong Y.C. Liu J.G. Review of snake robots in constrained environments.Robot. Autonom. Syst. 2021; 141: 103785Crossref Scopus (38) Google Scholar Since 2020, earthquakes have caused 56% damage to dwellings and 300 000 casualties in Japan. In response t