ARCSnake: An Archimedes’ screw-propelled, reconfigurable serpentine robot for complex environments

Proc. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2020

Dimitri A Schreiber, Florian Richter, Andrew Bilan, Peter V Gavrilov, Hoi Man Lam, Casey H Price, Kalind C Carpenter, Michael C Yip

Publisher Link: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9196968/

Abstract: This paper presents the design and performance of a new locomotion strategy for serpentine robots using screw propulsion. The ARCSnake robot comprises serially linked, identical modules, each incorporating an Archimedes’ screw for propulsion and a universal joint (U-Joint) for orientation control. When serially chained, these modules form a versatile serpentine robot platform which enables the robot to reshape its body configuration for varying environments, typical of a snake. Furthermore, the Archimedes’ screws allow for novel omni-wheel drive-like motions by speed controlling their screw threads. This paper considers the mechanical and electrical design, as well as the software architecture for realizing a fully integrated system. The system includes 3N actuators for N segments, each controlled using a BeagleBone Black with a customized power-electronics cape, a 9 Degrees of Freedom (DoF) Inertial …

Schreiber et al. (2020) ARCSnake: An Archimedes’ screw-propelled, reconfigurable serpentine robot for complex environments, Proc. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 7029-7034.