Structure Design And Implementation Of A Mixed Gaits Snake-like Robot

Robots are being more and more popular in special industries to complete dangerous operations instead of professionals. Bionic robots could imitate unique characteristics of creatures to finish the challenging tasks which humans usually fail. Especially, snake-like robots have incalculable potential in the field of disaster rescue, space exploration and military investigation as their powerful terrain adaptability like real snakes. In this paper, a kind of modular joint of snake-like robot with high carry capacity is designed based on joint characteristic of a natural snake. The main contents of this paper are as follows.1. The feature of snake-like robot model is analyzed to obtain the essential qualification of different locomotion of snake-like robot. Design a 3-DOF parallel mechanism based on characteristic of natural snakes to imitate interaction relationship between snake muscles and skeletons. A series of programs to be selected are proposed by the method of parallel joint design. Through the analysis of the continuous motion of the mechanism, the instantaneous mechanism which is not in conformity with the design is eliminated, and the configuration of the joint of the snake like robot is determined.2. Analysis the performance of the bionic parallel mechanism base on screw theory combine with geometric configuration to obtain the workspace, drive index, transmission index and dexterity index. Design the 3D model of the parallel mechanism. Considering the terrain adaptability of the snake-like robot, an active-omniwheel is proposed to expand a non-snake-like locomotion to form the mixed gaits. Build the whole snake-like robot model in ADAMS, set the environment of experimental platform. Analysis the influence of different parameters to the serpentine curve. Analysis the feature during serpentine locomotion,rectilinear locomotion and U-shape locomotion, to verify the performance of design.3. Design the hardware model of snake-like robot refer to the 3D simulation model with Solidworks software. Chose the driver of snake-like robot based on design requirements. The actual model is designed based on the theoretical model, turn the motion joints into solid parts contact relation to ensure its structural stability. The control circuit and driving circuit of the bionic parallel joint are designed, the hardware model is printed by the 3D printer and the solid joint is assembled.