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Evaluation of Bio-Inspired Scales on Locomotion Performance of Snake-Like Robots

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2019

Alexander H. Chang Open the ORCID record for Alexander H. Chang [Opens in a new window]  and
Patricio A. Vela Open the ORCID record for Patricio A. Vela [Opens in a new window]
Alexander H. Chang*
Affiliation:
Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM), School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
Patricio A. Vela
Affiliation:
Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM), School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: alexander.h.chang@gatech.edu
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Summary

The unique frictional properties conferred by snake ventral scales inspired the engineering and fabrication of surrogate mechanisms for a robotic snake. These artificial, biologically inspired scales produce anisotropic body-ground forcing patterns with various locomotion surfaces. The benefits they confer to robotic snake-like locomotion were evaluated in experimental trials employing rectilinear, lateral undulation, and sidewinding gaits over several distinct surface types: carpet, inhomogeneous concrete and homogeneous concrete. Enhanced locomotive performance, with respect to net displacement and heading stability, was consistently measured in scenarios that utilized the engineered scales, over equivalent scenarios where the anisotropic effects of scales were absent.

Keywords

Robotic snakeScalesAnisotropic forcingLocomotionBiomimetic robots
Type
Articles
Information
Robotica , Volume 37 , Issue 8 , August 2019 , pp. 1302 - 1319
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019 

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