Motion control scheme for a snake-like robot

Abstract

We present a new control scheme for a snake-like robot. This scheme is very close to the scheme which real snakes use to control their movement. After presenting some observations gained from real snakes we describe our robot GMD-SNAKE2, a robot for inspection tasks in areas difficult to access by humans. Then we discuss the motion control which was inspired by real snakes. This motion control depends on knowing the robot speed. We also give a method for speed estimation which proved to be useful in this context.