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The term perception-driven obstacle-aided locomotion (POAL) was proposed to describe locomotion in which a snake robot leverages a sensory-perceptual system to exploit the surrounding operational environment and to identify walls, obstacles, or other structures as a means of propulsion. To attain POAL from a control standpoint, the accurate identif...
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... exploded view of the joint module design is shown in Figure 1. As shown in Figure 2, the redesigned module consisted of a prismatic shell, which facilitates locomotion, increases stability, and enables compact placement of the inner components. ...
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... this initial work, the scope of the simulation was to perform an exploratory test of the simulated model. The considered elastic actuator was simulated in Gazebo, as shown in Figure 10. It should be noted that in this preliminary simulation, the kinematic representation of one module was simulated. ...
Citations
... However, even if each joint only provides a limited range of movement, the combination of all articulations provides a wide range of configurations to modify the shape of the body, thus allowing snakes to maneuver through many kinds of space. Snake robots are considered a promising configuration for the exploration of difficult-to-reach terrain or constrained places in which wheeled robots or even legged configurations may not be useful [11,12]. Typical applications of snake robots include pipe exploration [13][14][15][16]; search and rescue [17][18][19]; exploration, perception, and proprioception [20][21][22][23]; and medical applications [24][25][26][27][28][29], among others. ...
This study presents the design and evaluation of a prototype snake-like robot that possesses an actuation system based on shape memory alloys (SMAs). The device is constructed based on a modular structure of links connected by two degrees of freedom links utilizing Cardan joints, where each degree of freedom is actuated by an agonist–antagonist mechanism using the SMA spring-shaped actuators to generate motion, which can be easily replaced once they reach a degradation point. The methodology for programming the spring shape into the SMA material is described in this work, as well as the instrumentation required for the monitoring and control of the actuators. A simplified design is presented to describe the way in which the motion is performed and the technical difficulties faced in manufacturing. Based on this information, the way in which the design is adapted to generate a feasible robotic system is described, and a mathematical model for the robot is developed to implement an independent joint controller. The feasibility of the implementation of the SMA actuators regarding the motion of the links is verified for the case of a joint, and the change in the shape of the snake robot is verified through the implementation of a set of tracking references based on a central pattern generator. The generated tracking results confirm the feasibility of the proposed mechanism in terms of performing snake gaits, as well as highlighting some of the drawbacks that should be considered in further studies.
... Serpens is notable for its low cost, open-source nature, and high compliance, making it suitable for various applications. We recently introduced Serpens in our research publications (Sanfilippo et al., 2019;Duivon et al., 2022). Regarding guidance, a biologically inspired steering controller was presented in (Rañó et al., 2018). ...
Cobots are robots that are built for human-robot collaboration (HRC) in a shared environment. In the aftermath of disasters, cobots can cooperate with humans to mitigate risks and increase the possibility of rescuing people in distress. This study examines the resilient and dynamic synergy between a swarm of snake robots, first responders and people to be rescued. The possibility of delivering first aid to potential victims dispersed around a disaster environment is implemented. In the HRC simulation framework presented in this study, the first responder initially deploys a UAV, swarm of snake robots and emergency items. The UAV provides the first responder with the site planimetry, which includes the layout of the area, as well as the precise locations of the individuals in need of rescue and the aiding goods to be delivered. Each individual snake robot in the swarm is then assigned a victim. Subsequently an optimal path is determined by each snake robot using the A* algorithm, to approach and reach its respective target while avoiding obstacles. By using their prehensile capabilities, each snake robot adeptly grasps the aiding object to be dispatched. The snake robots successively arrive at the delivering location near the victim, following their optimal paths, and proceed to release the items. To demonstrate the potential of the framework, several case studies are outlined concerning the execution of operations that combine locomotion, obstacle avoidance, grasping and deploying. The Coppelia-Sim Robotic Simulator is utilised for this framework. The analysis of the motion of the snake robots on the path show highly accurate movement with and without the emergency item. This study is a step towards a holistic semi-autonomous search and rescue operation.
... A sensory-perceptual system exploits the environment to identify obstacles, walls, or structures and is regarded as perception-driven obstacle-aided locomotion. Ref. [101] introduced a multipurpose modular snake robot with an IMU, which used a linear discriminant analysis to identify terrain in real time. It remodeled the elastic joint with a damper element and redesigned the joint module using internal hardware components. ...
... Inertial navigation usually is applied for reconfigurable robots [99][100][101][102], and some approaches uses sensor fusion techniques [96][97][98]. Inertial navigation can be utilized for exploration [96,99], sweeping [100], and autonomous transport [97,101]. ...
... Inertial navigation usually is applied for reconfigurable robots [99][100][101][102], and some approaches uses sensor fusion techniques [96][97][98]. Inertial navigation can be utilized for exploration [96,99], sweeping [100], and autonomous transport [97,101]. Other navigation implements RFID or UWB for localization for entertainment [158] and searching [159]. ...
Biological principles draw attention to service robotics because of similar concepts when robots operate various tasks. Bioinspired perception is significant for robotic perception, which is inspired by animals’ awareness of the environment. This paper reviews the bioinspired perception and navigation of service robots in indoor environments, which are popular applications of civilian robotics. The navigation approaches are classified by perception type, including vision-based, remote sensing, tactile sensor, olfactory, sound-based, inertial, and multimodal navigation. The trend of state-of-art techniques is moving towards multimodal navigation to combine several approaches. The challenges in indoor navigation focus on precise localization and dynamic and complex environments with moving objects and people.
... These systems can conform to their surroundings and provide a more gentle movement during the interactions. A few examples of such design approaches can see in [87][88][89]. ...
Every year, especially in urban areas, the population density rises quickly. The effects of catastrophes (i.e., war, earthquake, fire, tsunami) on people are therefore significant and grave. Assisting the impacted people will soon involve human-robot Search and Rescue (SAR) operations. Therefore, it is crucial to connect contemporary technology (i.e., robots and cognitive approaches) to SAR to save human lives. However, these operations also call for careful consideration of several factors, including safety, severity, and resources. Hence, ethical issues with technologies in SAR must be taken into consideration at the development stage. In this study, the most relevant ethical and design issues that arise when using robotic and cognitive technology in SAR are discussed with a focus on the response phase. Among the vast variety of SAR robots that are available nowadays, snake robots have shown huge potential; as they could be fitted with sensors and used for transporting tools to hazardous or confined areas that other robots and humans are unable to access. With this perspective, particular emphasis has been put on snake robotics in this study by considering ethical and design issues. This endeavour will contribute to providing a broader knowledge of ethical and technological factors that must be taken into account throughout the design and development of snake robots.
... Snake robot, MAMBA has all modules sealed with rubber for waterproofing capable of protecting it till at water depths down to at least 2 m [66]. A series elastic actuatorbased precision torque-controlled low-cost robot named serpent was introduced in 2019, which utilized Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) manufacturing technology for 3D printing the modules using polycarbonate plastics [121]. Recently, to withstand higher traverse force and for the screw-less assembly mechanism, the elastic joint was redesigned with the addition of a damper element [122]. ...
Snake robots have been a topic of discussion among researchers for decades. They are potentially strong enough to bring substantial contributions to the fields which are unsafe/ narrow/ dirty/ hard reachable to human operators, such as inspections, rescue missions, firefighting, etc. Though the inventions of the wheel and legged mechanisms are amazing, they often fail when coming to these scenarios. Terrain adaptability is the vital essence of locomotion over constrained surfaces in biological snakes. But how this natural adaptability is accomplished in snake-like robots? Therefore, this paper focuses a study on factors behind the recreation of a physical snake, like the kinematics and dynamics modelling, mechanical design, and locomotion control approaches from existing literature. With their feature comparison, the simulators available for verifying the mathematical model and the feasibility of the mechanical design are also made for researchers new to the field.
Aquatic swimmers, whether natural or artificial, leverage their maneuverability and morphological adaptability to operate successfully in diverse, complex underwater environments. Maneuverability allows swimmers the agility to change speed and direction within a constrained operating space, while morphological adaptability allows their bodies to deform as they avoid obstacles and pass through narrow gaps. In this work, we design a soft, modular, nonbiomorphic swimming robot that emulates the maneuverability and adaptability of biological swimmers. This tethered swimming robot is actuated by a two degree-of-freedom (2-DOF) cable-driven mechanism that enables not only common maneuvers, such as undulatory surging and pitch/yaw rotations, but also a roll rotation maneuver that is steady and controllable. This simple 2-DOF system demonstrates full 3D swimming abilities in a space-constrained underwater test bed. The soft compliant body and passive foldable fins of the swimming robot lend to its morphological adaptability, allowing it to move through narrow gaps, channels, and tunnels and to avoid obstacles without the need for a low-level feedback control strategy. The passive adaptability and maneuvering capabilities of our swimming robot offer a new approach to achieving underwater navigation in complex real-world settings.
