Abstract
A snake robot is a type of highly redundant mobile robot that significantly differs from a tracked robot, wheeled robot and legged robot. To address the issue of a snake robot performing self-localization in the application environment without assistant orientation, an autonomous navigation method is proposed based on the snake robot’s motion characteristic constraints. The method realized the autonomous navigation of the snake robot with non-nodes and an external assistant using its own Micro-Electromechanical-Systems (MEMS) Inertial-Measurement-Unit (IMU). First, it studies the snake robot’s motion characteristics, builds the kinematics model, and then analyses the motion constraint characteristics and motion error propagation properties. Second, it explores the snake robot’s navigation layout, proposes a constraint criterion and the fixed relationship, and makes zero-state constraints based on the motion features and control modes of a snake robot. Finally, it realizes autonomous navigation positioning based on the Extended-Kalman-Filter (EKF) position estimation method under the constraints of its motion characteristics. With the self-developed snake robot, the test verifies the proposed method, and the position error is less than 5% of Total-Traveled-Distance (TDD). In a short-distance environment, this method is able to meet the requirements of a snake robot in order to perform autonomous navigation and positioning in traditional applications and can be extended to other familiar multi-link robots.
Highlights
The snake robot, which is based on the biological characteristics of snakes, constitutes an important branch of bionic robots
This paper described a proposed autonomous navigation method based on the characteristics of a snake robot’s motion constraints
The proposed method realized the snake robot’s autonomous navigation and positioning with non-nodes and non-assistant using the installation of IMU on the robot
Summary
The snake robot, which is based on the biological characteristics of snakes, constitutes an important branch of bionic robots. Most research is related to the snake robot’s structure, the movement gait, and the gait control method and robot body; most of these robots do not have the ability to perform autonomous navigation and positioning, which has hindered their use in complex unknown environments [2]. Who proposed a SLAM algorithm using single LiDAR, with LiDAR fixed on the outside of the robot head joints, and generated a 2D environment map for navigation [12]; and Chavan, P., who realized mapping and navigation for a snake robot using an Ultrasonic-sensor and a PIR-sensor, along with wireless control through ZigBee [13] Some sensors, such as LiDAR and Ultrasonic, can measure environment depth information, which can be used in a snake robot’s navigation and positioning.
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