Page 195 - Amphibionics : Build Your Own Biologically Inspired Robot

Amphibionics 05 3/24/03 8:44 AM Page 174
FIGURE 5.60
Sequence of body
positions during forward Amphibionics
movement.

To make the robot snake turn to the left, the same sine wave pat-
tern will need to occur in the vertical moving body segments, but
the snake’s body will also need to oscillate between the middle
position and a position where the body is arched to the left. The
pulsout values needed to control this movement are listed in Table
5.8, and will be used when programming the snake. Figure 5.61
shows the two positions that the snake’s body will oscillate
between to make a turn to the left. I found that the snake has the
ability to turn to the left or right much faster than it can travel in
the forward direction. Although a side-winding routine will not be
covered in this chapter, with enough experimentation, the snake
can be made to side-wind as its primary mode of locomotion.
When the snake is traveling forward and then moves quickly into
a turn, the effect is quite surprising and very lifelike.

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