Comparison of serial and parallel snake robots for lateral undulation motion using Gazebo

Snake robots maneuver in complex environments and exhibit large number of degrees of freedom in movement. Thus incorporating the required locomotion while ensuring simplicity and likelihood to actual serpentine motion is a challenge. This paper introduces two novel clustering sequence control mechanisms for both serial and parallel snake robots having eight cyclic configurations contributing to a serpentine gait. Four such variations for each robot were simulated and compared with each other with respect to the degree to which it mimics biological snakes and overall locomotion speed.