Author: Stanford University. Stanford Electronics Laboratories

Publisher:

Published: 1966

Total Pages: 106

ISBN-13:

The report is a study of properties and problems in multilink chains, or snake forms, biological snakes are not considered. The study deals primarily with geometric and kinematic details of movements of snake forms. The problem of general concern is that of placing the head of the snake on a given target. Subproblems arise as various schemes of target acquisition are discussed. Topics considered include minimax (in maximum curvature sense) snakes, sequential control, black box snakes (determining state from error measurements), path constrained target approach, minimum time target approach, binary (two position angle) snakes and adaptive target approach. It is found that the minimax convex snake with equal link lengths has the appearance of a piecewise linear approximation to an arc of a circle plus a straight line segment. Also, a sequential control scheme is developed that will carry the head to the target with a finite number of angle changes. (Author).