Head stabilization control for snake-like robots during lateral undulating locomotion

Snake-like robots are developed for searching and rescuing applications. The digital cameras are commonly installed on the head of the snake-like robots which are used to provide a visual feedback for the operators. However, the swing motion of the head has great impacts on the visual feedback when the snake-like robots perform lateral undulating locomotion. To solve this problem, a control method of head stabilization is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the head motion of the snake-like robots is analyzed through the discrete kinematic method. With the proposed method, the head of the snake-like robots can be fixed at any direction and position. Finally, the effectiveness of the control method is confirmed by the simulation. The head swings within the range of ±30° and ±90mm when the head stabilization control is not applied. The snake-like robots can stabilize the head direction with one neck joint under certain conditions. With two neck joints used, the direction and position of the head can be controlled within the range of ±5° and ±10mm respectively. Therefore, the proposed method is proved to be efficient.