Serpentine robots: A study of design philosophy

A number of serpentine robotic systems have been developed at various research laboratories. The ones notable among these are studied and discussed, which will provide a reasonably good insight into the various aspects of research and development in serpentine robots. The robotic systems have been studied from the point of view of their design philosophy and gait implementation techniques. Salient features of these robots are presented. Effort has been made to identify the robots that have articulation or series of rigid links connected with joints. Irrespective of their intended purpose, special attention was given to physical construction and effort has been made to classify the robots based on their locomotion mechanism, joint types and degree of freedom.