Experimental Analysis of Friction Effects Affecting the Snake Robot Segment during Rectilinear Locomotion

Ivan Virgala^1, , Alexander Gmiterko¹ and Peter Frankovský¹

¹Department of Applied Mechanics and Mechatronics, Technical University of Košice / Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Košice, Slovakia

Cite this paper:
Ivan Virgala, Alexander Gmiterko and Peter Frankovský. Experimental Analysis of Friction Effects Affecting the Snake Robot Segment during Rectilinear Locomotion. American Journal of Mechanical Engineering. 2013; 1(7):412-416. doi: 10.12691/ajme-1-7-52

Abstract

The paper deals with analysis of rectilinear motion of the snake robot. Considering that snake robot locomotion is based on friction forces between robot and its environment, the basic friction models are introduced. For study the experimental snake robot LocoSnake is used. At first, by mechanic laws the propulsive forces affecting segment of snake robot are determined. By means of mathematical analysis the average velocity of snake robot is derived. Since the number of snake robot segments has influence on robot average velocity, the optimal number of segments for maximum velocity is derived. In the next section the influence of dry and viscous friction on moving segment are described. At last the experimental analysis of three kinds of surfaces are done, namely dry friction, viscous friction using oil and viscous friction using lubricant. The measurements by means of measuring I/O card MF624 was done. In the conclusion the differences between these surfaces are described and discussed. The contribution of the paper is determination of influence of surface change on the snake robot rectilinear locomotion.

Keywords:
friction locomotion LocoSnake snake robot

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