Path planning for inchworm-like robot moving in narrow space

Considering the kinematic constraints and the path discreteness, a novel path planning method based on the feasible gait is proposed for an inchworm-like robot moving in a narrow space in this paper. Firstly, by analyzing the locomotion modes and the basic gaits of the robot, some arithmetic operators to describe the change of the position and orientation are defined, and a gait graph model is also presented. Secondly, making reference to the main idea of the partial dynamic window method, the path planning method is proposed, which include the environment modeling based on the dynamic partial grid map and the feasible gait searching algorithm based on the complete or incomplete traversal. Finally, some simulations and experiments are provided to validate the rationality and the validity of the path planning method.