Gait Analysis of Multi-Step Climbing Active Wheeled Snake Robot

Abstract

Snake robots have been a popular choice for search and rescue operations in disaster-prone areas, cramped spaces, uneven terrain and in hazardous environments unfit for humans due to their flexibility, modular design and highly articulated body structure. One of the salient features required by these robots is the ability to climb multiple steps at a time. Inspired by biological snakes which can seamlessly change their shape according to the contour of stairs for climbing multiple steps, this paper proposes a ‘Step Morphing Gait’ which would enable the proposed snake robot design to ascend multiple steps at a time. Gait analysis in this paper shows the step by step procedure of how the gait is implemented. Also, a looping technique in this gait is developed which makes the problem of climbing multiple steps for hyper redundant systems intuitively easier to understand and implement in realtime simulated environment. Co-simulation results validate the proposed gait.