Suppressing Jerky Motions in Multi-Joint Snake-Like Robots via Linear CPG Parameter Adjustment

Obstacle avoidance in cluttered environments is a fundamental requirement for snake-like robots. However, due to their hyper-redundant structure, adjusting body shape appropriately to avoid obstacles remains challenging. Existing bio-inspired methods, such as central pattern generators (CPGs), are often tuned empirically without clear principles to ensure smooth transitions during obstacle avoidance. Therefore, our study proposes a simple strategy to address this problem by linearly adjusting a parameter in the CPG model. Physics-based simulations show that our method enables smooth body shape adaptation for collision-free movement. These results demonstrate the potential of parameter modulation for improving the adaptability of snake-like robots.