A Hybrid Model of Snake Robot Locomotion in Cluttered Environments

We begin the second part of this book by extending the model presented at the beginning of this book to include contact forces from external obstacles in the environment around the snake robot. Since the interaction with an obstacle represents a discrete event that only occurs when a link of the snake robot comes into contact with an obstacle, the robot will be subjected to both continuous and discontinuous dynamics in this environment. We will therefore describe the dynamics of the snake robot in terms of a hybrid model.