High-Efficiency, High-Speed Traveling Snake-Like Robot with Infinite Rotation Axis

Snake-like robots have attracted attention as robots that can travel over rough and uneven terrain, such as disaster sites and planetary exploration applications, whereas traveling mechanisms by wheels cannot. However, in the previous studies on snake-like robots, the issue of power consumption due to driving a large number of servomotors remained. Therefore, we propose a mechanism that transforms the backward link of a snake-like robot into a wheel-like shape to realize a three-wheeled vehicle mode on flat ground that provides the same reliability, traveling speed, and efficiency of traveling as a wheeled mobile robot in this study. However, to improve travel efficiency and running stability, the motion in the undulation and wheel modes must be properly designed. Therefore, we designed motions in these modes and constructed a method for switching between them. Experiments were conducted to verify the travel efficiency of the wheeled mode proposed in this study, and it was shown that, it can achieve greater travel efficiency than undulation.