Snake robots in contact with the environment: Influence of the configuration on the applied wrench

Robots capable of both locomotion and interaction with the environment are necessary for robots to move from ideal laboratory situations to real applications. Snake robots have been researched for locomotion in unstructured environments due to its unique and adaptable gaits. However, they have not been used to interact with the environment in a dexterous manner, for example to grasp or push an object. In this paper, the model of a snake robot in contact with external objects (or the environment) is derived. Metrics that are coordinate-independent are derived in order to quantify the wrench that a snake robot could exert into these objects. In particular, we show that the configuration of the robot plays a significant role in these metrics. The model and metrics are tested in a study case.