Analysis and validation of serpentine locomotion dynamics of a wheeled snake robot moving on varied sloped environments

This paper investigates the problem of a multi-segmented and passively wheeled snake-like robot moving on varied sloped environments. The varied sloped environments indicate three-typical scenarios for the robot to move up, down and perpendicular to an incline in this investigation. The mathematical analysis of the motion dynamics for the snake robot moving in serpentine mode on the different sloped conditions is performed respectively, with a focus on how the motion dynamics change when the robot is on one of sloped environments as opposed to flat ground. The simulations based on these mathematical descriptions predict the effect of varying control parameters on the robot's motion on flat ground as well as motion up, down, and perpendicular to an inclined slope. Experiments confirm and validate results from the simulations. We found that an incline in the sloped environments affects not only the speed but also the direction of robot motion and degree of slipping at the friction points as well. These findings will help promote the design of task-oriented control strategies for steering the snake robot to move on a complex sloped environment.