The OmniTread serpentine robot for industrial inspection and surveillance

Many industrial applications require inspections and surveillance in hard-to-reach and sometimes even hazardous areas. A relatively new kind of robotic mechanism, called a “serpentine robot,” may be able to provide a solution to some of these applications. Serpentine robots are slender, multisegmented vehicles designed to provide greater mobility than conventional wheeled or tracked robots. This paper introduces one such robot, the “OmniTread.” The OmniTread serpentine robot comprises five segments, which are linked to each other by 2-degree-of-freedom joints. Moving tracks on all four sides of each segment assure propulsion even when the vehicle rolls over. The 2-DOF joints are actuated by pneumatic bellows, which produce sufficient torque to lift the two leading or trailing segments up and over obstacles. This paper describes in detail the OmniTread’s general design, its key 1 This work was conducted at the University of Michigan’s Mobile Robotics Lab. Funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy under Award No. DE-FG04-86NE3796 as well as by the Intelligence Technology Innovation Center (ITIC) through Southwest Research Institute under CONTRACT No. F009822. mechanical elements, and its low-level control system. The OmniTread serpentine robot was tested at the Small Robotic Vehicle Test Bed at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). Results from these independent and objective tests are also presented in this paper.