Path-following Control of a Snake Robot With Multiple Passive Joints

A snake robot should be robust to actuator failures because it has more actuators than required for locomotion. However, controlling a snake robot is problematic if some of the joints become passive because of problems in power supply lines. In a recent study, we proposed a controller to achieve path-following in cases where one of the joints is passive. However, the controller applies only to cases with a single passive joint. With two or more passive joints, it cannot be applied even if sufficient active joints remain. This paper considers the path-following control of a snake robot with passive joints by extending our previous study (the single passive joint case). The validity of the method is verified by numerical simulation.