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Background:

A promising field of robotics research is that of snake robots. Long, thin bodies allow this type of robot to traverse tight, obstacle filled terrain. The dexterity of their strong, flexible bodies afford them many modes of operation, including moving across solid ground and granular media, swimming, climbing, ascending stairs, and more. Potential applications include exploration (both terrestrial and extraterrestrial), search and rescue, and medical operations such as chest surgery or endoscopy.

Many snake robots have been developed, such as the exploration and the surgical “snakebots” from Carnegie Mellon University. These robots actuate rigid segments, giving an approximation of a flexible body, but are still restricted to a finite number of degrees of freedom. In an attempt to create a continuously flexible snakebot (thereby enabling infinite degrees of freedom), our sponsor Dr. Michael Yip proposed a flexible backbone.

Another novelty of the project was the method of actuation. Many snake robots use motors to directly drive joint motion. Dr. Yip proposed a twisted string method of actuation, which uses three motors in tandem to constrict or relax tendon-like strings. This actuation method allows for simple but robust control of a flexible segment.

Design Overview:

(Add kinematic image here)

𝚷 = bending plane

𝛳 = in-plane actuation angle

𝜙 = whole-plane actuation angle

p = flexible arc distal end

p* = rigid link distal end

C = circle center point

s = arc length

l = rigid link length

r = circle radius