To read this content please select one of the options below:

(excl. tax) 30 days to view and download

The snake-inspired robots: a review

Xiaolong Yang, Long Zheng, Da , Jinhao Wang, Shukun Wang, Hang Su, Zhixin Wang, Luquan Ren

Assembly Automation

ISSN: 0144-5154

Article publication date: 8 July 2022

Issue publication date: 19 July 2022

1497

Abstract

Purpose

Snake-inspired robots are of great significance in many fields because of their great adaptability to the environment. This paper aims to systematically illustrate the research progress of snake-inspired robots according to their application environments. It classifies snake-inspired robots according to the numbers of degrees of freedom in each joint and briefly describes the modeling and control of snake-inspired robots. Finally, the application fields and future development trends of snake-inspired robots are analyzed and discussed.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper summarizes the research progress of snake-inspired robots and clarifies the requirements of snake-inspired robots for self-adaptive environments and multi-functional tasks. By equipping various sensors and tool modules, snake-inspired robots are developed from fixed-point operation in a single environment to autonomous operation in an amphibious environment. Finally, it is pointed out that snake-inspired robots will be developed in terms of rigid and flexible deformable structure, long endurance and multi-function and intelligent autonomous control.

Findings

Inspired by the modular and reconfigurable concepts of biological snakes, snake-inspired robots are well adapted to unknown and changing environments. Therefore, snake-inspired robots will be widely used in industrial, military, medical, post-disaster search and rescue applications. Snake-inspired robots have become a hot research topic in the field of bionic robots.

Originality/value

This paper summarizes the research status of snake-inspired robots, which facilitates the reader to be a comprehensive and systematic understanding of the research progress of snake-inspired robots. This helps the reader to gain inspiration from biological perspectives.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Funding: The authors appreciate the financial support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.51905208), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No.2020M670855) and the Open Project Program of Key Laboratory for Cross-Scale Micro and Nano Manufacturing, Minstry of Education, Changchun University of Science and Technology (No.CMNM-KF202103).

Citation

Yang, X., Zheng, L., Lü, D., Wang, J., Wang, S., Su, H., Wang, Z. and Ren, L. (2022), "The snake-inspired robots: a review", Assembly Automation, Vol. 42 No. 4, pp. 567-583. https://doi.org/10.1108/AA-03-2022-0058

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles