Path Following for Snake Robot Using Crawler Gait Based on Path Integral Reinforcement Learning

This paper presents a method for snake robots with orthogonal joints to follow a path via crawler gait. Considering snake robot system’s redundancy, a novel path integral reinforcement learning (PI2) framework is applied to solve it. Taking advantage of crawler gait, the path following problem is first simplified to solve optimal curvature sequence for it. Then rolling optimization algorithm is adopted through the solving process to improve solution efficiency and real-time performance. Moreover, path integral is integrated into the rolling optimization to improve solution quality. Finally, we validate the frame by simulation, with results that follow the target path.