Locomotion control of a snake-like robot based on dynamic manipulability

I n this paper we discuss an autonomous locomotion control of a snalce-like articulated robot with passive wheels. Such a robot has quite different mechanism in locomotion from that of other locomotion systems, namely, it has no driving wheel and moves only b y bending its body. Hence the locomotability depends on i ts posture. I n order to evaluate the locomotability, we utilize and a notion of dynamic manipulability which has been applied to robot manipulator. W e also propose a simple controller based on this manipulability. Simulation results show that a certain periodic winding motion is automatically generated.