Creation of Robotic Snake to Validate Contact Modeling in Simulation

Abstract

The objective of this project was to create a robotic snake that could be compared to an identical snake in a simulation program called LMS Virtual Lab. The robotic snake would then be able to confirm the effectiveness of the simulation program and would help determine the coefficient of friction in contact modeling. The snake body was roughly based on the design of the Carnegie Mellon University snake robots. It was constructed using a series of links made of polycarbonate and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (PC-ABS) plastic connected by MX-28 Dynamixel motors. The links were designed so that the robot could be tracked using a VICON motion tracking system. Slots were cut into the sides of the skin so that the number of contact points with the ground could be adjusted in order to find out how many contact points were needed to create an adequate simulation. The robot was fed a tapered sine wave in order to simulate a slithering motion.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2013
Accession Number
ADA594656

Entities

People

  • Mark Hoppel

Organizations

  • American Society for Engineering Education

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Alkenes
  • Amplitude
  • Coefficients
  • Computer Science
  • Education
  • Engineering
  • Friction
  • Geometry
  • Materials
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Robots
  • Simulations
  • Sine Waves
  • Three Dimensional
  • Universities
  • Waves

Readers

  • Electromagnetic Wave Scattering and Antenna Radiation Engineering
  • Robotics and Automation.
  • Software Engineering.

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML
  • AI & ML - Autonomous Systems
  • AI & ML - Neural Networks
  • Autonomy