Research on Docking Methods Based on Reconfigurable Snake Robot

In complex environments, the movement and detection capabilities of snake robot depend on gait control, but limited by the number of joints, it is difficult to achieve both high search efficiency and high movement capabilities. In this paper, a reconfigurable snake robot and its docking control method are proposed to address this challenge. First, a docking initial configuration is designed, in which a stabilizing base is formed by coiling some of the joints and the remaining joints are used as docking actuators. Secondly, forward and inverse kinematic models of the snake robot were established to realize the mapping between joint space and operation space. Finally, the Goal Bias RRT algorithm and fifth degree polynomial interpolation are used to plan the trajectory from the initial configuration of docking to the termination state. The experiments verify the feasibility of the proposed method and provide an effective strategy for reconfiguration of snake robot in complex tasks.