Adaptive locomotion of a snake like robot based on curvature derivatives

This paper presents locomotion control for a robotic snake that adaptively travels over rugged terrain using obstacles as supports. This kind of locomotion can typically be found in snakes in nature. The snake robot dealt with in this paper has an articulated structure in which all joints are actively driven. For locomotion on a flat terrain, joint torques distributed according to the curvature derivative of the body curve has been proved to be optimal under the condition that there is no lateral slippage at every part of the body. In this paper, the same method is applied to locomotion using two kinds of environmental supports; a narrow corridor surrounded by smoothly curved walls and a peg.