@inproceedings{ae3062d1b42542568f6ab20748a274cd,
title = "The omega turn: A biologically-inspired turning strategy for elongated limbless robots",
abstract = "Snake robots have the potential to locomote through tightly packed spaces, but turning effectively within unmodelled and unsensed environments remains challenging. Inspired by a behavior observed in the tiny nematode worm C. elegans, we propose a novel in-place turning gait for elongated limbless robots. To simplify the control of the robots' many internal degrees-of-freedom, we introduce a biologically-inspired template in which two co-planar traveling waves are superposed to produce an in-plane turning motion, the omega turn. The omega turn gait arises from modulating the wavelengths and amplitudes of the two traveling waves. We experimentally test the omega turn on a snake robot, and show that this turning gait outperforms previous turning gaits: it results in a larger angular displacement and a smaller area swept by the body over a gait cycle, allowing the robot to turn in highly confined spaces.",
author = "Tianyu Wang and Baxi Chong and Kelimar Diaz and Julian Whitman and Hang Lu and Matthew Travers and Goldman, \{Daniel I.\} and Howie Choset",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 IEEE.; 2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS 2020 ; Conference date: 24-10-2020 Through 24-01-2021",
year = "2020",
month = oct,
day = "24",
doi = "10.1109/IROS45743.2020.9340872",
language = "English (US)",
series = "IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems",
publisher = "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.",
pages = "7766--7771",
booktitle = "2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS 2020",
address = "United States",
}