Soft robotic snakes (SRSs) have a unique combination of continuous and compliant properties that allow them to imitate the complex movements of biological snakes. Despite the previous attempts to develop SRSs, many have been limited to planar movements or use wheels to achieve locomotion, which restricts their ability to imitate the full range of biological snake movements. We propose a new design for the SRSs that is wheelless and powered by pneumatics, relying solely on spatial bending to achieve its movements. We derive a kinematic model of the proposed SRS and utilize it to achieve two snake locomotion trajectories, namely sidewinding and helical rolling. These movements are experimentally evaluated under different gait parameters on our SRS prototype. The results demonstrate that the SRS can successfully mimic the proposed spatial locomotion trajectories. This is a significant improvement over the previous designs, which were either limited to planar movements or relied on wheels for locomotion. The ability of the SRS to effectively mimic the complex movements of biological snakes opens up new possibilities for its use in various applications.

翻译：软体蛇型机器人（SRS）兼具连续性与柔顺性，使其能够模仿生物蛇的复杂运动。尽管已有SRS的研发尝试，但多数局限于平面运动或依赖轮式驱动，这限制了其模仿生物蛇全谱系运动的能力。我们提出了一种无轮气动驱动的新型SRS设计方案，仅依靠空间弯曲实现运动。建立了该SRS的运动学模型，并据此实现了两种蛇类运动轨迹——侧向蜿蜒与螺旋翻滚。通过在不同步态参数下对SRS原型机进行实验评估，结果表明该机器人能够成功模仿所提出的空间运动轨迹。相较于此前仅能实现平面运动或依赖轮式驱动的设计，本研究取得了显著进展。SRS有效模仿生物蛇复杂运动的能力，为其在多领域的应用开辟了新可能。