ABSTRACT
A biomimetic approach is proposed to solve the difficulty in controlling a snake-like robot with a large number of degrees of freedom. This method is based on the central pattern generator (CPG), which is a rhythmical motion generator existing in most animals. To solve the problems in the previous CPG network, a new network with a feedback connection is presented that can generate uniform outputs without any adjustment. Furthermore, the relation characteristics between the CPG parameters and the outputs are investigated. Based on the results of the influence of each parameter, desired motion patterns can be achieved by adjusting the CPG parameters correspondingly. Both simulation of and experiments with the snake-like robot have been taken for the analysis of the locomotion control.
