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32 TRACKED AND SNAKE-LIKE ROBOTS

Rosa Robot, 1999 to 2002 designed by University of Helsinki, Finland. Initially in 1992-1994 by Transmach VM Company, Russia. Image : Matti Anttila.

Telemax Robot of German Company Telerob in May 2010 at ELROB in Hammelburg, Germany.

Telemax Robot from Germany. Pict J M M at Villepinte, 2006 06.

IUB Rugbot, of International University of Bremen was the winner of Robocup 2006. The kind of ladder with driven tracks is tilt.

A "Eye Drive" ground robot of German Glueckauf Logistik Company during exibition at the German army base on May 18, 2010 in Hammelburg, Germany.

Asendro, 2006 from Robowatch, group of Diehl BGT Defence GmbH & Co.

Tracked robots of the 2000. Top : Assendro Scout and bottom : Ofro, tracked robot for surveillance, both of Robowatch Technologies GmbH, Berlin. Pict J M M in 2008 at Villepinte.

Tracked robots of the 2000. Pictures J M M at Villepinte 2006 except upper center. From L to R donwards : Telerob tEOD observation robot in 2006, from Telerob, Germany, OTO Melara TRP-1B, Italy, QineticIQbot CBRN surveillance robot in 2004, Telemax in 2006, OTO Melara TRP-1B in 2008, Scorpio in 2006.

Qinetiq IQbot CBRN in 2004 from Qinetiq, Farnborough, GB.

Soukos Rescue Robot, pictured by J M M in 2002 at Villepinte. Soukos Robots SA., Larisa, Greece, was founded in 1979.

Oto Melara Robot TRP-1B. The front part of the tracks are can be raised or lowered. Pict J M M at Villepinte, 2002.

Grounhog Observation Robot with wheels and tracks. Pict J M M in 2004 at Villepinte.

Scarab II and III of ROV Technologies, Inc, Vermont, built remote operated vehicles particularly for nuclear industry.

Micro VGTV, Variable Geometry Tracked Vehicle, from Inuktun.

Chaos Robot from Autonomous Solutions, Utah.

Asi-chaos-brochure-from-autonomous-solutions.pdf

Chaos Robot since 2007 from Autonomous Solutions Inc., Peterboro, UT, can carry loads of 25 kg. The four independant controlled tracks allows it to crawl or walk on uneven terrains. On this picture, Chaos robot is equiped with a manipulator.

WATV tracked and walking robot from Autonomous Solutions, Petersboro, Utah and University of Utah in the early 2000. The walking mode added mobility to tracks. This robot led to Chaos robot of the same manufacturer which is marketed since mid 2000.

SRV-1 Howe and Howe underground rescue robot UGV.

Moogle mini (13 kg) rescue robot of Chiba Institute of Technology.

Hybrid Mobile Robot, 2008, University of Toronto. The manipulation arm serves to locomotion on uneven terrains. https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca

/bitstream/1807/11181/1/Ben-Tzvi_Pinhas_200806_PhD_thesis.pdf

Good Samaritan Rescue Robot in 2006-2007 of Colorado State University, Denver. Ground clearance is variable by deforming the shape of tracks.

VGTV Variable Geometry Tracked Vehicle from Inutkun, Nanaimo, BC. By changing its shape, it can overcome obstacles. Built for nuclear inspection and seach and rescue since the 2000s. the Linkage Mechanism Actuator, LMA robots presents the same system of reconfigurable tracks.

BSCP Bississipi Shape Changing Platform Robot built in Lego. It represents a fonctional model of the VGTV, Variable Geometry Tracked Vehicle Robot of Inutkun, Nanaimo, BC.

Bear Robot of Vecna Robotics, Greenbelt, MD, Articulated tracked robots studied since 1999 for logistics, handling, surveillance, search and rescue, security, mine inspection. Powerfull robot controlled by hydraulics, very mobile thanks 2 sets of tracks which can walk, and dynamic balancing.

http://www.vecna.com/robotics/solutions/

bear/index.shtml

Andros F6A Surveillance wheeled and tracked robot from Remotec of Northrop Grumman. Pict J M M at Villepinte in 2000.

Andros Robot.

Tracked robots of the 2000. Top : iRobot Watch Impress, Bottom : IRobot Warrior II.

Sandia Rovers Ratler, articulated in the direction of the length, 4x4 for planetary exploration.

NUGV Robot, Novel Unmanned Ground Robot od Spawar in 2004, improves its mobility by change its configuration. It is electrically powered and teleoperated.The NUGV was designed and built by ACEi, Valencia, CA, under SPAWAR Systems Center contract.

http://www.spawar.navy.mil/robots/

pubs/spie5422-16.pdf

http://www.public.navy.mil/spawar/Pacific/Robotics/Pages/NUGV.aspx

LURCH of Sandia robot articulated on the lengh. It may be with or without tracks (Ratler).

SandDragon, articulated in pitch, of Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA. Powered by batteries for 5 hours endurance, it was built for Marine Corps.

Moira snake like robot

	Moira I Snake Robot, 2003, from Osuka Laboratories, Japan. It comprises 4 segments with 2 driven tracks on its four sides for a total of 8 tracks by segments. 2 DOF joints are actuated by pneumatic actuators. and it can lift up its nose to ovecome obstacles.
	Moira robot, the head.
	Moira 1 and 2 Snakes Robots for rescueing.

Moira 2 tracked snake robot developed by Kyoto University is 1,4 m long, 18 kg, particularly suited for rescue operations in Japan or Asia countries since wooden structures leave little space to go through when they collapse. First version dates from 2003.

ATV and Moira II Snake like robot

Millibot Train, 2002, from Cargenie Mellon University

ASC, Active Scope Camera, Snake-like robot of Tohoku University in 2008. This 8 m robot, equipped with camera and fiber-optic for searching under collapsed building, is propelled down by millipede-type action of vibrating inclined cillia on its body to propel itself at 5 cm/s. It performs well but camera does not compensates if the robot flip over and the orientation of the operator is lost. More, the camera not at all wide angle. This robot was used at Sendaï, Japan.

	The Snake-like robot prototype, 2007, of Dr. Satoshi Tadoroko of Tohoku University is used to search through rumbles after disaster. A large number of directed hairs vibrates to provide moving ahead. A search light in front of the robot send back a good image.
	Snake robots at Cargenie Mellon University.

ACM-R3 snake like robot, 2001, from Hirose Fukushima Robotics. The passive wheels (not driven) are here to reduce friction and they could be detached, the robots moving forwards by lateral ondulations (like snakes), lateral rolling (like earthworms) or sinosoïdal waves (like caterpillars of butterfly) and even translation by pedal waves (like snails).

ACM-R4 Snake like robot, 2004, from S. Hirose, is similar to ACM-R3 but wheels are driven allowing to cross large obstacles which could not be possible with waves. Moving is not by ondulating waves but by wheels and the body is completly articulated.

However, this operation is difficult and it was written that sensor signals fitted on the robot would make it automaticaly adapted to narrow and stepped environnement for easy moving on uneven grounds. It seems such a robot doesn't exists today.

ACM-R4 is equipped with rubber seals at the joints and wheel shafts. Experiments confirm continuous 3 hours operation in muddy water.

ACM-R4 snake robot of Hirose in 2004. Each unit has one DOF (Degree Of Freedom) of bending but the next joint is turned of 90°. The wheels are driven which allows to climb this chair.

http://www.intechopen.com/source/

pdfs/799/InTech-Hypermobile_robots.pdf

	Swarm-bots in Bruxells in 2007. Studied until 2005 at EPFL, Lausanne, it is a reconfigurable robot whose units can be assembled helping them to cross large obstacles.
	Snake-like robot "SnakeWheel-2" made in 2007 by The State Scientific Center of Russia - Central R&D Institute for Robotics and Technical Cybernetics. http://tams.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/lehre/2009ws/seminar/ir/ PDF/snake-like%20robot.pdf
	Snake Gen 3 of NASA used deformable ring to move forward. Early 2000.
	Snake 2 of GMD, German National Research Center, in 1999. Each segment had 12 electricaly driven wheels. Designed for pipe inspection.
	Slime Robot of Hirose in 1999 is composed of a main tube of serially-connected 3 DOF modules activated by pneumatic actuators. It can creep by lateral waves as a true snake, waves like a snail or laterally roll and pivot turn.
	KOHGA snake robot of 8 units. Each unit has two tracks except the two heads. These units are serially interconnected with both ends first two joints as 2-DOF active joint and rest of the joints as 3-DOF passive joint. The passive joints provide good adaptation to complex environments. For this reason, KOHGA has high mobility even in rough terrains. Developed by Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama and Matsumo Laboratory of Kyoto University in 2002 for rescue.
	OT4 snake-like robot on driven tracks about 2006 seems to be the best 'off-road' robot. Propulsion is NOT by ondulating waves. Of course, joint are active control in yaw and pitch (not in roll).
	OT8 and OT4 snake like robots of University of Michigan, 2007. They can cross very large obstacles and are really off-road.


	Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Robot 85 cm long 35 cm wide, mass 6,3 kg. Composed of 4 articulated lines with 18 wheels each of 4 cm diameter. Designed for moving in atomic power station in 2000.Pict from Sciences et Vie, April 2000.
	Makro snake robot, 2000, from Fraunhofer Institute for Autonomous Intelligent Systems in St. Augustin, Germany. Makroplus, nowerdays, is autonomous and is able to overcome obstacles.
	Gavin Miller's snake like robots from the 90s to 2005 can crawl on flat soils and are very reallistic. Passive wheels assist movement. http://tams.informatik. unihamburg.de/ lehre/2009ws/seminar/ir/PDF/snake-like%20robot.pdf
	Carnegie Mellon snake-robot, 2010. This new snake-like robot can move forward on relatively flat ground by waves, roll, sideways and wrap around a tree trunk or inside a pipe. Others snakes bots exists like Anna Konda, HiBot Amphibious snake, Unified Snake robot of CMU Biorobotics Lab, Gavin Miller Bots, Sand Snake Robots of Georgia Institute of Technology, snake robot of St Peterburg and others.
	ACM-R5 Amphibious robot realised by Shigeo Horose, Tokyo, which was the first to built snake like robots. This robot moves foward on ground and water by lateral ondulating and wheels are not driven. It seems today (May 2011) that snake-like robots propelled by waves cannot progress on uneven grounds like true snakes. This means they need additional tracks, wheels or legs to move without ondulating. http://www-robot.mes.titech.ac.jp/robot.html
	Omniped Snake robot propelled by with legs (and not waves) of University of Michigan in 2002-2003.
	Polybot snakebot in 2002 of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, CA and NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffetts, CA. This rather old model was said to be able to go over obstacles (there are no videos) in the future and it seems it needed more sensors to progress much better on rocky grounds. It could move inchworm, flipover, coil and side-wind.
	Polybot snake robot G3 in early 2000 of NASA and Parc could be configurated into loop to climb upstairs or in line using vertical ondulations (sinusoïdal waves) to go fowards or downstairs.First generation in the 90s were Polybots and Polypod of Parc, Stanford, which were reconfigurable in snake, legged spider, rolling track, earthworm. It doesn't seems that really off-road snake-robots moving by ondulations exists nowadays.
	Millibot train semi-autonomous articulated tracked robot in built in 2002 at Cargenie Mellon University.The Millibot Train concept provides couplers that allow the Millibot modules to engage/disengage under computer control and joint actuators that allow lifting of one module by another and control of the whole train shape in two dimensions. Millibot

Robots from Russia. L Top : Andrew-5 domestic robot .Each track chassis can turn around wheel axle to cross over obstacles. LBelow and M Top : Triangular Tracks on a rather big robot : M Below and R Top : : Wheels on legged robot R Below : Triangular track robot.

Selene Rover LRC, 2008, of Surrey Space Center of University of Surrey. It is the same system as Telemax.

Raposa robot, 2005, of Instituto Superior Technico of Portuguese University and IdMind, Engenharia de Sistemas, Lda Company.

	Robhaz-DT5 robot from Korea Institute of Science and Technology around 2006.
	Robhaz DT5
	Korean rescue robots : left : NTUT National Univ Taipei of Technology 2011, Robhaz DT5, right : Robhaz and MRL.

SNR1 or DIR123 of AIST (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology), Japan, from 2008. Two triangular tracks and a driven articulated tracked tail make this robot original and efficient.

http://www.isd.mel.nist.gov/projects/

USAR/2007/RoboCupRescue_Robot_League

_Atlanta_GA_USA_%282007.3%29.pdf

Quince Recue Robot built in 2010 by Japan’s International Rescue System Institute and the Chiba Institute of Technology is higtly mobile, weights 2,6 kg and moves at 1,6 m/s.

Quince robot, Chiba Institute to be used at Fukushima.

	Passive tracks robot seen at Japan Open 2007.
	M-TRAN III (2005) self reconfigurating robot of AIST, Japan. This lattice structure can be automatically configured into walking robots, crawling snake-like robot or rolling ring. Many laboratories research on this subject like Akiya Kamimyra's Modular Robotic System and else. http://unit.aist.go.jp/is/frrg/dsysd/ mtran3/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Reconfiguring_Modular_Robotics
	M-TRAN II self reconfigurating robot, 2003, from AIST and Tokyo Institute of Technologt which studied a metamorphosable robot from a Four-Legged Walker to a Caterpillar.

	KOHGA2 rescue robot by Matsuno Lab in 2007. Four driven tracked arms allow crossing obstacles. Khoga 3 is more update. Pr Fumitoshi Matsino is also vice president of International Recue System Institute.

Soryu, Blue Dragon, 1997, was built by Hirose Fukushima Lab, Tokyo Institute of Technology, as a rescue robot. Pict VSD from 3 to 9 Febr 2000.

http://www-robot.mes.titech.ac.jp/robot.html

Blue Dragon Type V SR5 of S Hirose and Fukushima is a bellyless robot to upgrade off-road performance.

	Soryu IV rescue robot, 2006, from S. Hirose and Fukushima.
	IRS Soryu, of S. Hirose of Robotic Institute of Technology, Tokyo.

Helios VII robot of S. Hirose in 2002. Arms of the tracks can make it 'Walk'. The center of gravity of the rover can be adjusted with robot arm and make it easier to climb on obstacles and to recover after flipping over

Helios IX rescue robot of Hirose and Fukushima Lab, Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2011.

Gunryu robot, 1992, Hirose and Fukishima Lab, Tokyo, could go over large obstacles and planned, in a next step, to perform by groups.

	Topy robot
	Robots from Japan : Upper left : Shinobi NuTech-R Nagoaka Univ Of Tech, Lower left ; Univ of Electro-Communications, NIIT Bleue-Japan. Upper Right : c-rescue, Lower Right : NIIT Blue-Japan.

Thailand Robots : upper : rescue Saqib 2006 to present from Faculty of Bart Lab Engineering, Mahidol University, Thailande, lower : KMITNB's Team, King Mongkut's Institute of Technology North Bangkok in Thailand Rescue robot contest 2007.

	Snail, Resquake of K.N.Toosi University of Technology, Teheran, MRL of AZAD University of Qazvin, recue robots
	Resquake Robot K.N. Toosi University of Iran, 2005 to present.
	Ariana robot is fitted with hybrid Triangular Tracked Wheel (TTW) locomotion mechanism and seen at RoboCup 2006 Rescue Robot League (NIST test arena). The concept of TTW locomotion mechanism is introduced by Amir H. Soltanzadeh.

MRK-35 Mobile Surveillance Robot from Rusec.

MRK-25 from SRDEB, Special Robotics Experimental Design Bureau rescue robot in mid 80s successfully used to clean Chernobyl nuclear power station. Pict from 'Military Parade', March, April 1998.

Assembled gears K of Kegresse Engineer, 1940. Two gears of wire-guided destruction barriers were assembled together avoiding to roll-over. engins-blindes.leforum.eu

Eros Robot from INTRA (INTervention Robotique sur Accident) created in 1998 by EDF, CEA and Areva. This indoor articulated robot was pictured by J M Maclou at Open House at Fontenay-aux Roses in 1992. Numerous robots are now stored at Chinon EDF Nuclear Power Plant. Some tracked robots are rather large and mechanical bases comes from civilian market. EOLE robot is issued from Andros Remotec robot.

Andros Robot developped in France in the 80s by CEA Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique. In fact, it is isued from the Andros Robot of Remotec, called later EOLE.

Teleman Recue Robot for Nuclear Power Plant, 1992, CEA , Fontenay Aux Roses, France. Tracks are fitted with picklocks for better climbing stairs.

Frastar II of Framatome, Lyon, in the 80s.

Oscar, Romain and Teddi Robots

Oscar and Romain rescue robots of CEA

Mobile robot from 1989 by Cibernetix, Marseille.

Xinhuanet robot from China in 2008 for ice and snow surface. Mass 300 kg, payload 40 kg, pulls loads of 100 kg, operational in a radius of 25 km.

Reconfigurable robot JL-I developed by Zhang et al. (2006). Each module could move separatly.

Aoeba-1 rescue robot built in 2006 by State Key Laboratory of Robotics, China.

	Last robot from Chinese Accademy of Sciences, 2011
	Robots from China

Azimut Robot, 2002, from Laborius of University of Sherbrooke, Quebec, is an autonomus and original robot with four Akerman steering tracks conceived by François Michaux and his team.

Pandora of Automatika, Pattsburg, Pensylvania is now owned by QinetiQs North America. Interesting tracks that can walk. Pandora is no more manufactured.

Aurora robot of Automatika had Design Excellence Award in 2002. It is sold today for firefighting and reconnaissance applications or pipe inspection. It incorporates a unique system of steerable and pichable drive mono-tread. Prototype weights 10 kg. Automatika, O'Hara Township, PA, is a subsidary of Foster-Miller, Inc.,owned itself by Qineti North America (QNA) Company in 2007.

automatika-one-track-robot.pdf

Aurora robot of Automatika of Hagen Schempf. A drive-spine and pins are glued on the inside-curf on the continuous urethane belt and pins are used to drive the belt with the sprockets and guide it with the guide-slipnes. The body is divaded in 3 articulated parts. Aurora is driven by batteries and electric motors.

3x3 ELMS Roving Vehicle with active pitch control and yaw sterring built for Marshall Space Flight Center in early 70s. See Chapter : 'Change around the tracks III'. The Elastic Loop Mobility System, invented by Kitchens and studied by N. C. Costes and W. Trautwein was not really a track.

ELMS Rover for Mars exploration in 1985.

	4GM robot of Rover Company of St Petersburg created for a 'large Mars Rover' in 1974. The propulsive device had four autonomous caterpillar bogies. Having independent two-degree-of-freedom torsion suspension it was created to investigate this propultion device. Mass 450 kg, speed : 1 and 2 km/h,
	4GM Robot

MACbot, Multi Active Crawler Robot, in 2008, from Korea University, Seoul, has tracks that can completly revolve on their axle to cross obstacles. Mass : 4 kg. Maximum Height of obstacle : 18 cm.

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32 TRACKED AND SNAKE-LIKE ROBOTS

Rosa Robot, 1999 to 2002 designed by University of Helsinki, Finland. Initially in 1992-1994 by Transmach VM Company, Russia. Image : Matti Anttila.

Telemax Robot of German Company Telerob in May 2010 at ELROB in Hammelburg, Germany.

Telemax Robot from Germany. Pict J M M at Villepinte, 2006 06.

IUB Rugbot, of International University of Bremen was the winner of Robocup 2006. The kind of ladder with driven tracks is tilt.

A "Eye Drive" ground robot of German Glueckauf Logistik Company during exibition at the German army base on May 18, 2010 in Hammelburg, Germany.

Asendro, 2006 from Robowatch, group of Diehl BGT Defence GmbH & Co.

Tracked robots of the 2000. Top : Assendro Scout and bottom : Ofro, tracked robot for surveillance, both of Robowatch Technologies GmbH, Berlin. Pict J M M in 2008 at Villepinte.

Qinetiq IQbot CBRN in 2004 from Qinetiq, Farnborough, GB.

Soukos Rescue Robot, pictured by J M M in 2002 at Villepinte. Soukos Robots SA., Larisa, Greece, was founded in 1979.

Oto Melara Robot TRP-1B. The front part of the tracks are can be raised or lowered. Pict J M M at Villepinte, 2002.

Grounhog Observation Robot with wheels and tracks. Pict J M M in 2004 at Villepinte.

Scarab II and III of ROV Technologies, Inc, Vermont, built remote operated vehicles particularly for nuclear industry.

Micro VGTV, Variable Geometry Tracked Vehicle, from Inuktun.

Chaos Robot from Autonomous Solutions, Utah.

Chaos Robot since 2007 from Autonomous Solutions Inc., Peterboro, UT, can carry loads of 25 kg. The four independant controlled tracks allows it to crawl or walk on uneven terrains. On this picture, Chaos robot is equiped with a manipulator.

WATV tracked and walking robot from Autonomous Solutions, Petersboro, Utah and University of Utah in the early 2000. The walking mode added mobility to tracks. This robot led to Chaos robot of the same manufacturer which is marketed since mid 2000.

SRV-1 Howe and Howe underground rescue robot UGV.

Moogle mini (13 kg) rescue robot of Chiba Institute of Technology.

Hybrid Mobile Robot, 2008, University of Toronto. The manipulation arm serves to locomotion on uneven terrains. https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca

/bitstream/1807/11181/1/Ben-Tzvi_Pinhas_200806_PhD_thesis.pdf

Good Samaritan Rescue Robot in 2006-2007 of Colorado State University, Denver. Ground clearance is variable by deforming the shape of tracks.

VGTV Variable Geometry Tracked Vehicle from Inutkun, Nanaimo, BC. By changing its shape, it can overcome obstacles. Built for nuclear inspection and seach and rescue since the 2000s. the Linkage Mechanism Actuator, LMA robots presents the same system of reconfigurable tracks.

BSCP Bississipi Shape Changing Platform Robot built in Lego. It represents a fonctional model of the VGTV, Variable Geometry Tracked Vehicle Robot of Inutkun, Nanaimo, BC.

Bear Robot of Vecna Robotics, Greenbelt, MD, Articulated tracked robots studied since 1999 for logistics, handling, surveillance, search and rescue, security, mine inspection. Powerfull robot controlled by hydraulics, very mobile thanks 2 sets of tracks which can walk, and dynamic balancing.

bear/index.shtml

Andros F6A Surveillance wheeled and tracked robot from Remotec of Northrop Grumman. Pict J M M at Villepinte in 2000.

Andros Robot.

Tracked robots of the 2000. Top : iRobot Watch Impress, Bottom : IRobot Warrior II.

Sandia Rovers Ratler, articulated in the direction of the length, 4x4 for planetary exploration.

NUGV Robot, Novel Unmanned Ground Robot od Spawar in 2004, improves its mobility by change its configuration. It is electrically powered and teleoperated.The NUGV was designed and built by ACEi, Valencia, CA, under SPAWAR Systems Center contract.

pubs/spie5422-16.pdf

http://www.public.navy.mil/spawar/Pacific/Robotics/Pages/NUGV.aspx

LURCH of Sandia robot articulated on the lengh. It may be with or without tracks (Ratler).

SandDragon, articulated in pitch, of Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA. Powered by batteries for 5 hours endurance, it was built for Marine Corps.

Moira snake like robot

Moira I Snake Robot, 2003, from Osuka Laboratories, Japan. It comprises 4 segments with 2 driven tracks on its four sides for a total of 8 tracks by segments. 2 DOF joints are actuated by pneumatic actuators. and it can lift up its nose to ovecome obstacles.

Moira robot, the head.

Moira 1 and 2 Snakes Robots for rescueing.

Moira 2 tracked snake robot developed by Kyoto University is 1,4 m long, 18 kg, particularly suited for rescue operations in Japan or Asia countries since wooden structures leave little space to go through when they collapse. First version dates from 2003.

ATV and Moira II Snake like robot

Millibot Train, 2002, from Cargenie Mellon University

The Snake-like robot prototype, 2007, of Dr. Satoshi Tadoroko of Tohoku University is used to search through rumbles after disaster. A large number of directed hairs vibrates to provide moving ahead. A search light in front of the robot send back a good image.

Snake robots at Cargenie Mellon University.

ACM-R4 Snake like robot, 2004, from S. Hirose, is similar to ACM-R3 but wheels are driven allowing to cross large obstacles which could not be possible with waves. Moving is not by ondulating waves but by wheels and the body is completly articulated.

However, this operation is difficult and it was written that sensor signals fitted on the robot would make it automaticaly adapted to narrow and stepped environnement for easy moving on uneven grounds. It seems such a robot doesn't exists today.

ACM-R4 is equipped with rubber seals at the joints and wheel shafts. Experiments confirm continuous 3 hours operation in muddy water.

ACM-R4 snake robot of Hirose in 2004. Each unit has one DOF (Degree Of Freedom) of bending but the next joint is turned of 90°. The wheels are driven which allows to climb this chair.

pdfs/799/InTech-Hypermobile_robots.pdf

Swarm-bots in Bruxells in 2007. Studied until 2005 at EPFL, Lausanne, it is a reconfigurable robot whose units can be assembled helping them to cross large obstacles.

Snake-like robot "SnakeWheel-2" made in 2007 by The State Scientific Center of Russia - Central R&D Institute for Robotics and Technical Cybernetics.

PDF/snake-like%20robot.pdf

Snake Gen 3 of NASA used deformable ring to move forward. Early 2000.

Snake 2 of GMD, German National Research Center, in 1999. Each segment had 12 electricaly driven wheels. Designed for pipe inspection.

Slime Robot of Hirose in 1999 is composed of a main tube of serially-connected 3 DOF modules activated by pneumatic actuators. It can creep by lateral waves as a true snake, waves like a snail or laterally roll and pivot turn.

OT4 snake-like robot on driven tracks about 2006 seems to be the best 'off-road' robot. Propulsion is NOT by ondulating waves. Of course, joint are active control in yaw and pitch (not in roll).

OT8 and OT4 snake like robots of University of Michigan, 2007. They can cross very large obstacles and are really off-road.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Robot 85 cm long 35 cm wide, mass 6,3 kg. Composed of 4 articulated lines with 18 wheels each of 4 cm diameter. Designed for moving in atomic power station in 2000.Pict from Sciences et Vie, April 2000.

Makro snake robot, 2000, from Fraunhofer Institute for Autonomous Intelligent Systems in St. Augustin, Germany. Makroplus, nowerdays, is autonomous and is able to overcome obstacles.

Gavin Miller's snake like robots from the 90s to 2005 can crawl on flat soils and are very reallistic. Passive wheels assist movement.

lehre/2009ws/seminar/ir/PDF/snake-like%20robot.pdf

Omniped Snake robot propelled by with legs (and not waves) of University of Michigan in 2002-2003.

Robots from Russia. L Top : Andrew-5 domestic robot .Each track chassis can turn around wheel axle to cross over obstacles. LBelow and M Top : Triangular Tracks on a rather big robot : M Below and R Top : : Wheels on legged robot R Below : Triangular track robot.

Selene Rover LRC, 2008, of Surrey Space Center of University of Surrey. It is the same system as Telemax.

Raposa robot, 2005, of Instituto Superior Technico of Portuguese University and IdMind, Engenharia de Sistemas, Lda Company.

Robhaz-DT5 robot from Korea Institute of Science and Technology around 2006.

Robhaz DT5

Korean rescue robots : left : NTUT National Univ Taipei of Technology 2011, Robhaz DT5, right : Robhaz and MRL.

SNR1 or DIR123 of AIST (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology), Japan, from 2008. Two triangular tracks and a driven articulated tracked tail make this robot original and efficient.

USAR/2007/RoboCupRescue_Robot_League

_Atlanta_GA_USA_%282007.3%29.pdf

Quince Recue Robot built in 2010 by Japan’s International Rescue System Institute and the Chiba Institute of Technology is higtly mobile, weights 2,6 kg and moves at 1,6 m/s.

Quince robot, Chiba Institute to be used at Fukushima.

Passive tracks robot seen at Japan Open 2007.

M-TRAN III (2005) self reconfigurating robot of AIST, Japan. This lattice structure can be automatically configured into walking robots, crawling snake-like robot or rolling ring. Many laboratories research on this subject like Akiya Kamimyra's Modular Robotic System and else.

mtran3/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Reconfiguring_Modular_Robotics