Adaptive creeping locomotion of a CPG-controlled snake-like robot to environment change

In this paper, we present a biomimetic approach which is based on Central Pattern Generator (CPG) to solve the difficulty in control of a snake-like robot with a large number of degrees of freedom. A new network with a feedback connection is proposed, which can generate uniform outputs without any additional adjustment. The relations between the CPG parameters and the characteristics of output are also investigated. A simulation platform is also established for the analysis of the CPG-based locomotion control of a snake-like robot. To figure out adaptive creeping locomotion of the robot to the environment with changed friction or the given slope, the relations of CPG parameters and locomotion efficiency by the proposed curvature adaptive principle have been discussed.