Adaptive Climbing Strategy of Snake Robot Based on Compliance Control

Snake robots, exhibiting a high degree of redundancy, are a class of biomimetic robots capable of forming a helical rolling gait for climbing trees and pipes. The surface structure of naturally grown trees is irregular, which may hinder the snake robots from achieving optimal surface conformation. Additionally, the presence of numerous branching structures in pipes introduces unpredictability in pipe climbing. To address these challenges, we propose an adaptive climbing strategy for snake robots based on compliant control. By adjusting a pre-set elasticity coefficient, the snake robot modulates the output torque of each joint, thereby altering the target angle of the joint. This adjustment enables the snake robot to adapt to unstructured environments. We conducted an experiment on climbing curved pipes to verify the effectiveness of this method. The result demonstrate that under unknown conditions, the robustness of the snake robot’s climbing motion is enhanced by modifying the pre-set elasticity coefficient based on compliant control. This finding underscores the potential of compliant control in improving the adaptability and performance of Snake robots in complex environments.