Motion analysis of an ellipsoidal kinematic closed chain

Abstract

Concerning robotics, one topic of interest is locomotion and specifically non-conventional locomotion that can be oriented to design robots that could pass through different surfaces in an autonomous way, with the lower power consumption possible. An approach to it, is a modular snake robot in a closed chain configuration (as a rolling wheel) instead of a creeping locomotion. In this article we propose a general framework for analyzing the rolling motion of a closed robotic chain. We give a general view of the state of the art concerning limbless locomotion; we explain the kinodynamics of the proposed robot and its motion, we obtain a model based on the inverted pendulum analysis, and we present the steps to follow for the analysis of any closed kinematic chain. Results are compared with experiments reported by other authors using the CKBot modular robot in dynamic rolling locomotion configuration. Some metrics are also used to validate the analysis and make a comparison between experiments done with the real robot, and the model proposed here.