A Study of Energy-Efficient and Optimal Locomotion in a Pneumatic Artificial Muscle-Driven Snake Robot

This paper presents a study of energy efficiency and kinematic-based optimal design locomotion pneumatic artificial muscle (PAM)-driven snake-like robot. Although robots have several advantages over wheeled track-wheeled mobile robots, their low energy-locomotion has limited applications in long-range outdoor fields. work continues our previous efforts designing prototyping muscle-driven robot to address limitation. An electro-pneumatic control hardware was developed the robot’s algorithm for generating lateral undulation gait. The single (i.e., PAM), 2-link module robot, 6-link snake were also studied. Moreover, power consumption derived determine cost transportation as index measuring performance Finally, analyzed compared similar models. Our analysis showed that is 0.21, which comparable reported range 0.016–0.32 from other robots. In addition, determined be 0.19 0.01–0.75 motion joints ±30∘, i.e., 25∘–45∘.