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Planar kinematics analysis of a snake-like robot

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 November 2013

Lounis Douadi ,
Davide Spinello ,
Wail Gueaieb  and
Hassan Sarfraz
Lounis Douadi*
Affiliation:
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Ottawa, 800 King Edward Ave., Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, Canada
Davide Spinello
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ottawa, 161 Louis Pasteur, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, Canada
Wail Gueaieb
Affiliation:
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Ottawa, 800 King Edward Ave., Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, Canada
Hassan Sarfraz
Affiliation:
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Ottawa, 800 King Edward Ave., Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, Canada
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: Lounis.douadi@gmail.com
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Summary

This paper presents the kinematics of a planar multibody vehicle which is aimed at the exploration, data collection, non-destructive testing and general autonomous navigation and operations in confined environments such as pipelines. The robot is made of several identical modules hinged by passive revolute joints. Every module is actuated with four active revolute joints and can be regarded as a parallel mechanism on a mobile platform. The proposed kinematics allows to overcome the nonholonomic kinematic constraint, which characterizes typical wheeled robots, resulting into a higher number of degrees of freedom and therefore augmented actuation inputs. Singularities in the kinematics of the modules are analytically identified. We present the dimensional synthesis of the length of the arms obtained as the solution of an optimization problem with respect to a suitable dexterity index. Simulation results illustrate a kinematic control path following inside pipes. Critical scenarios such as 135° elbows and concentric restriction are explored. Path following shows the kinematic capability of deployment of the robot for autonomous operations in pipelines, with feedback implemented by on-board sensors.

Keywords

Mobile robotsNavigationParallel manipulatorsService robotsControl of robotic systems
Type
Articles
Information
Robotica , Volume 32 , Issue 5 , August 2014 , pp. 659 - 675
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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