Development of Snake Robot for Search and Rescue Mission

Abstract

Snake Robots has multiple actuated joints which allows multiple degrees of freedom. Because of multiple joints and modular structure it can move in Serpentine motion (the way a snake moves). Compared to wheeled and legged robot mechanisms, the snake robot offers high stability, terrain-ability and redundancy and it can be used for many applications such as Rescue Missions, Military and Medical Operations and also for Surveillance. The development of snake robot is involve of extreme mechanical and bulk. The weight and the limitation of the snake robot is under research. The complex snake robot make the application was limitation difficult to autonomous and robust. The limitation of the jointing and segment of the starting point to end point make the range of motion is static. The objective for this project is to design kinematic modelling and develop the prototype of the snake robot, to develop snake robot motion algorithm for snake robot locomotion, and to measure and evaluate the snake robot motion capability in different surface with different coefficient of friction. The process for this project start with Serpentine gait and it’s kinematic, design and fabricate of the snake robot, control algorithm and the experiment for difference surface. The experiment will be test on the test bed with 3 difference surface that has been choose to find the coefficient of friction and velocity of the snake robot. We performed experiments with the snake robot, and found that a maximum velocity of 2.13 m/s could be achieved during serpentine locomotion on vinyls. This robot can be apply to Search and Rescue Team, Firefighter, and pipe inspection.