Trajectory control of snake-like robots in natural oscillation

A class of body movement patterns called natural oscillation has been revealed to mimic the gaits observed in many animals. In this paper, we introduce an additional higher level control loop that is capable of manipulating a robot's motion orientation. With such a new orientation turning functionality, a snake-like robot is able to achieve trajectory tracking while maintaining its body in a natural oscillation gait. The effectiveness of the control design is illustrated by some case studies with various trajectories