Locomotion control of a snake-like robot based on dynamic manipulability

We discuss autonomous locomotion control of a snake-like articulated robot with passive wheels. Such a robot has a quite different mechanism in locomotion from that of other locomotion systems, namely, it has no driving wheel and moves only by bending its body. Hence the locomotability depends on its posture. In order to evaluate the locomotability, we utilize a notion of dynamic manipulability which has been applied to a robot manipulator. We also propose a simple controller based on this manipulability. Simulation results show that a certain periodic winding motion is automatically generated