Serpens: A Highly Compliant Low-Cost ROS-Based Snake Robot with Series Elastic Actuators, Stereoscopic Vision and a Screw-Less Assembly Mechanism
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Related Research Work
3. Mechanical Overview
3.1. Design Principles
- Principle of minimalism. To make the robot inexpensive, easily customisable, and fast to fabricate, each module is equipped with the simplest mechanical structure, the minimum number of actuators (only a single SEA per module with one degree of freedom (DOF) and the simplest set of sensors. During the design process, the main focus is to keep the amount of parts as low as possible, and at the same time minimise the number of assembly operations.
- Principle of symmetry. To facilitate the interaction with the environment, a symmetric design is adopted for each module with a flat profile for the interaction with the terrain. The symmetric design is also selected to store and release energy in a balanced manner.
- Screw-less assembly mechanism. To ease the connection and reconfiguration of the robot modules, a screw-less assembly mechanism is designed in a very reliable and robust manner.
3.2. Mechanical Design
3.3. Estimated Production Cost
- 3D-printing cost;
- cost of COTS mechanical parts (e.g., springs, nuts, bolts, bearings); and
- electrical components (e.g., micro-controller, sensors, and actuator).
3.4. Screw-Less Assembly Mechanism
3.5. Series Elastic Actuator (SEA)
3.6. Heat Dissipation
4. Software/Hardware Overview
4.1. Open-Source Software
4.2. Hardware Overview
4.3. Encoders
4.4. Single-Board Computer and Stereoscopic Camera
4.5. ROS-Based Low-Level Architecture
4.6. Guidelines for Designing the Control Framework Architecture to Achieve POAL
- Perception/Mapping: This level is responsible for achieving the functions of sensing, mapping and localisation.
- Motion planning: This level is responsible for decision-making, path-planning and mission planning activities.
- High-level control: This level combines force and torque information with positional data to satisfy simultaneous position and force trajectory constraints.
- Low-level control: This level is responsible for the low-level control of individual joints. This is the level presented in this work.
5. Simulations and Experimental Results
6. Conclusions and Future Work
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Abbreviations
POAL | perception-driven obstacle-aided locomotion |
SEA | series elastic actuator |
ROS | Robot Operating System |
FDM | Fused Deposition Modelling |
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Parameter | Value |
---|---|
Weight | ∼500 g |
Width/height | 75 mm |
Length between joint axes | 200 mm |
Degrees of freedom | 1 |
Max joint travel | |
Max continuous joint torque | 3.0 Nm (at 12 V) |
Max joint speed with no load | 77 RPM (at 12 V) |
Operating Temperature (actuators) | −5 °C∼80 °C |
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Sanfilippo, F.; Helgerud, E.; Stadheim, P.A.; Aronsen, S.L. Serpens: A Highly Compliant Low-Cost ROS-Based Snake Robot with Series Elastic Actuators, Stereoscopic Vision and a Screw-Less Assembly Mechanism. Appl. Sci. 2019, 9, 396. https://doi.org/10.3390/app9030396
Sanfilippo F, Helgerud E, Stadheim PA, Aronsen SL. Serpens: A Highly Compliant Low-Cost ROS-Based Snake Robot with Series Elastic Actuators, Stereoscopic Vision and a Screw-Less Assembly Mechanism. Applied Sciences. 2019; 9(3):396. https://doi.org/10.3390/app9030396
Chicago/Turabian StyleSanfilippo, Filippo, Erlend Helgerud, Per Anders Stadheim, and Sondre Lieblein Aronsen. 2019. "Serpens: A Highly Compliant Low-Cost ROS-Based Snake Robot with Series Elastic Actuators, Stereoscopic Vision and a Screw-Less Assembly Mechanism" Applied Sciences 9, no. 3: 396. https://doi.org/10.3390/app9030396
APA StyleSanfilippo, F., Helgerud, E., Stadheim, P. A., & Aronsen, S. L. (2019). Serpens: A Highly Compliant Low-Cost ROS-Based Snake Robot with Series Elastic Actuators, Stereoscopic Vision and a Screw-Less Assembly Mechanism. Applied Sciences, 9(3), 396. https://doi.org/10.3390/app9030396