Abstract: Until now, many snake-like robots and its motions have been studied. For example, lateral undulating motion, side winding motion and lateral rolling motion were developed. However, in those motions, the robot's shapes are planned in advance. On the other hand, snake-like robots are expected to be used in a complex, narrow and crowded space such as in a construction of nuclear power plants. In such a complex environment, snake-like robots cannot avoid contacting with the surrounding objects and it is hard to plan the motion in advance. In order to solve the problem, reactive motions for a snake-like robot should be devised. Such a locomotion for a snake-like robot is called as obstacle aided locomotion, and we are also proposing a method of obstacle aided locomotion and conducting its experiments. In this paper, our idea of Reverse Lateral Inhibition is described and simulation results are shown in which energy consumption of the snake-like robot reduced. In addition, a prototype of snake-like robot and experimental results using the prototype robot are shown.

Keyword: snake-like robot; obstacle aided locomotion; lateral inhibition; reverse lateral inhibition