{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,12]],"date-time":"2026-03-12T05:59:02Z","timestamp":1773295142518,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,1]],"date-time":"2022-04-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1648771200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Robotics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The term perception-driven obstacle-aided locomotion (POAL) was proposed to describe locomotion in which a snake robot leverages a sensory-perceptual system to exploit the surrounding operational environment and to identify walls, obstacles, or other structures as a means of propulsion. To attain POAL from a control standpoint, the accurate identification of push-points and reliable determination of feasible contact reaction forces are required. This is difficult to achieve with rigidly actuated robots because of the lack of compliance. As a possible solution to this challenge, our research group recently presented Serpens, a low-cost, open-source, and highly compliant multi-purpose modular snake robot with a series elastic actuator (SEA). In this paper, we propose a new prototyping iteration for our snake robot to achieve a more dependable design. The following three contributions are outlined in this work as a whole: the remodelling of the elastic joint with the addition of a damper element; a refreshed design for the screw-less assembly mechanism that can now withstand higher transverse forces; the re-design of the joint module with an improved reorganisation of the internal hardware components to facilitate heat dissipation and to accommodate a larger battery with easier access. The Robot Operating System (ROS) serves as the foundation for the software architecture. The possibility of applying machine learning approaches is considered. The results of preliminary simulations are provided.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/robotics11020042","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,1]],"date-time":"2022-04-01T21:23:55Z","timestamp":1648848235000},"page":"42","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["The Redesigned Serpens, a Low-Cost, Highly Compliant Snake Robot"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Askan","family":"Duivon","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical, Electronic and Chemical Engineering, Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet), 0130 Oslo, Norway"}]},{"given":"Pino","family":"Kirsch","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical, Electronic and Chemical Engineering, Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet), 0130 Oslo, Norway"}]},{"given":"Boris","family":"Mauboussin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical, Electronic and Chemical Engineering, Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet), 0130 Oslo, Norway"}]},{"given":"Gabriel","family":"Mougard","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical, Electronic and Chemical Engineering, Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet), 0130 Oslo, Norway"}]},{"given":"Jakub","family":"Woszczyk","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical, Electronic and Chemical Engineering, Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet), 0130 Oslo, Norway"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1437-8368","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Filippo","family":"Sanfilippo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Engineering Sciences, University of Agder (UiA), Jon Lilletuns vei 9, 4879 Grimstad, Norway"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sanfilippo, F., Azpiazu, J., Marafioti, G., Transeth, A.A., Stavdahl, \u00d8., and Liljeb\u00e4ck, P. (2016, January 13\u201315). A review on perception-driven obstacle-aided locomotion for snake robots. Proceedings of the IEEE 14th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision (ICARCV), Phuket, Thailand.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICARCV.2016.7838565"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sanfilippo, F., Stavdahl, \u00d8., Marafioti, G., Transeth, A.A., and Liljeb\u00e4ck, P. (2016, January 3\u20137). Virtual functional segmentation of snake robots for perception-driven obstacle-aided locomotion. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), Qingdao, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/ROBIO.2016.7866597"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sanfilippo, F., Azpiazu, J., Marafioti, G., Transeth, A.A., Stavdahl, \u00d8., and Liljeb\u00e4ck, P. (2017). Perception-driven obstacle-aided locomotion for snake robots: The state of the art, challenges and possibilities. Appl. Sci., 7.","DOI":"10.3390\/app7040336"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sanfilippo, F., Helgerud, E., Stadheim, P.A., and Aronsen, S.L. (2019, January 19\u201322). Serpens, a low-cost snake robot with series elastic torque-controlled actuators and a screw-less assembly mechanism. Proceedings of the IEEE 5th International Conference on Control, Automation and Robotics (ICCAR), Beijing, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICCAR.2019.8813482"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sanfilippo, F., Helgerud, E., Stadheim, P.A., and Aronsen, S.L. (2019). Serpens: A Highly Compliant Low-Cost ROS-Based Snake Robot with Series Elastic Actuators, Stereoscopic Vision and a Screw-Less Assembly Mechanism. Appl. Sci., 9.","DOI":"10.3390\/app9030396"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Duivon, A., Kirsch, P., Mauboussin, B., Mougard, G., Woszczyk, J., and Sanfilippo, F. (2021, January 11\u201313). The new design of Serpens, a highly compliant low-cost snake robot. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Intelligent Technologies and Applications (INTAP 2021), Grimstad, Norway.","DOI":"10.3390\/robotics11020042"},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Quigley, M., Conley, K., Gerkey, B., Faust, J., Foote, T., Leibs, J., Wheeler, R., and Ng, A.Y. (2009, January 12\u201317). ROS: An open-source Robot Operating System. Proceedings of the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Workshop on Open Source Software, Kobe, Japan."},{"key":"ref_8","unstructured":"Nansai, S., Suzuki, Y., Iwase, M., Izutsu, M., and Hatakeyama, S. (2011, January 26\u201329). Development of snake-like robot with rotational elastic actuators. Proceedings of the 2011 11th International Conference on Control, Automation and Systems, Gyeonggi-do, Korea."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rollinson, D., Bilgen, Y., Brown, B., Enner, F., Ford, S., Layton, C., Rembisz, J., Schwerin, M., Willig, A., and Velagapudi, P. (2014, January 14\u201318). Design and architecture of a series elastic snake robot. Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Chicago, IL, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2014.6943219"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"593","DOI":"10.1007\/s42235-019-0048-x","article-title":"Design and Development of a Wheel-less Snake Robot with Active Stiffness Control for Adaptive Pedal Wave Locomotion","volume":"16","author":"Koopaee","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. Bionic Eng."},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"Pratt, G.A., and Williamson, M.M. (1995, January 5\u20139). Series elastic actuators. Proceedings of the IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Human Robot Interaction and Cooperative Robots, Pittsburgh, PA, USA."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rollinson, D., Ford, S., Brown, B., and Choset, H. (2013, January 21\u201323). Design and modeling of a series elastic element for snake robots. Proceedings of the Dynamic Systems and Control Conference, Palo Alto, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1115\/DSCC2013-3875"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"15","DOI":"10.1109\/TRO.2019.2935336","article-title":"Tactile sensing and terrain-based gait control for small legged robots","volume":"36","author":"Wu","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Robot."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1185","DOI":"10.1109\/TRO.2005.855994","article-title":"Vibration-based terrain classification for planetary exploration rovers","volume":"21","author":"Brooks","year":"2005","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Robot."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Weiss, C., Frohlich, H., and Zell, A. (2006, January 9\u201315). Vibration-based terrain classification using support vector machines. Proceedings of the IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Beijing, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2006.282076"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"63485","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2019.2916480","article-title":"Three-dimensional vibration-based terrain classification for mobile robots","volume":"7","author":"Bai","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Haddadin, S., Mansfeld, N., and Albu-Sch\u00e4ffer, A. (2012, January 7\u201312). Rigid vs. elastic actuation: Requirements & performance. Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Vilamoura-Algarve, Portugal.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2012.6386227"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sanfilippo, F., Salvietti, G., Zhang, H., Hildre, H.P., and Prattichizzo, D. (2012, January 24\u201327). Efficient modular grasping: An iterative approach. Proceedings of the 4th IEEE RAS & EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob), Rome, Italy.","DOI":"10.1109\/BioRob.2012.6290693"},{"key":"ref_19","unstructured":"Koenig, N., and Howard, A. (October, January 28). Design and use paradigms for gazebo, an open-source multi-robot simulator. Proceedings of the IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Sendai, Japan."},{"key":"ref_20","unstructured":"Sanfilippo, F., Stavdahl, \u00d8., and Liljeback, P. (November, January 29). SnakeSIM: A Snake Robot Simulation Framework for Perception-Driven Obstacle-Aided Locomotion. Proceedings of the 2nd International Symposium on Swarm Behavior and Bio-Inspired Robotics (SWARM), Kyoto, Japan."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sanfilippo, F., Stavdahl, \u00d8., and Liljeb\u00e4ck, P. (2017, January 5\u20138). SnakeSIM: A ROS-based rapid-prototyping framework for perception-driven obstacle-aided locomotion of snake robots. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), Macau, Macao.","DOI":"10.1109\/ROBIO.2017.8324585"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"449","DOI":"10.1007\/s10015-018-0458-6","article-title":"SnakeSIM: A ROS-based control and simulation framework for perception-driven obstacle-aided locomotion of snake robots","volume":"23","author":"Sanfilippo","year":"2018","journal-title":"Artif. Life Robot."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hua, T.M., Sanfilippo, F., and Helgerud, E. (2019, January 6\u20139). A robust two-feedback loops position control algorithm for compliant low-cost series elastic actuators. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC), Bari, Italy.","DOI":"10.1109\/SMC.2019.8913845"},{"key":"ref_24","unstructured":"Hua, T.M., Sanfilippo, F., and Nguyen Vinh, H. (2021, January 11\u201313). An Adaptive Sliding Mode Controller for a 2-DOF Elastic Robotic Arm. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Intelligent Technologies and Applications (INTAP 2021), Grimstad, Norway."},{"key":"ref_25","first-page":"223","article-title":"Modelling and control of a 2-DOF robot arm with elastic actuators for safe human-robot interaction","volume":"8","author":"Hua","year":"2021","journal-title":"Front. Robot. AI"},{"key":"ref_26","first-page":"2061","article-title":"Control of redundant 3D snake robot based on kinematic model","volume":"Volume 2","author":"Matsuno","year":"2003","journal-title":"Proceedings of the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No. 03CH37422)"},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Liljeb\u00e4ck, P., Pettersen, K.Y., Stavdahl, \u00d8., and Gravdahl, J.T. (2013). Snake Robots: Modelling, Mechatronics, and Control, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-4471-2996-7"},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"031120","DOI":"10.1115\/1.4044691","article-title":"Dynamical modeling and control of modular snake robots with series elastic actuators for pedal wave locomotion on uneven terrain","volume":"142","author":"Koopaee","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. Mech. Des."},{"key":"ref_29","unstructured":"Bischoff, R., and Guhl, T. (2009). Robotic Visions to 2020 and Beyond\u2014The Strategic Research Agenda for Robotics in Europe, European Robotics Technology Platform (EUROP)."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"469","DOI":"10.1016\/j.robot.2008.10.024","article-title":"A survey of robot learning from demonstration","volume":"57","author":"Argall","year":"2009","journal-title":"Robot. Auton. Syst."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1238","DOI":"10.1177\/0278364913495721","article-title":"Reinforcement learning in robotics: A survey","volume":"32","author":"Kober","year":"2013","journal-title":"Int. J. Robot. Res."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tesch, M., Schneider, J., and Choset, H. (2011, January 25\u201330). Using response surfaces and expected improvement to optimize snake robot gait parameters. Proceedings of the IEEE\/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, San Francisco, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/IROS.2011.6095076"},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"623","DOI":"10.1017\/S0263574712000616","article-title":"Application of statistical techniques in modeling and optimization of a snake robot","volume":"31","author":"Kalani","year":"2013","journal-title":"Robotica"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"436","DOI":"10.1038\/nature14539","article-title":"Deep learning","volume":"521","author":"LeCun","year":"2015","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_35","unstructured":"Ito, K., and Matsuno, F. Application of reinforcement learning to hyper-redundant system acquisition of locomotion pattern of snake like robot. Proceedings of the Korea Inteligent Information System Society Conference."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"632","DOI":"10.1109\/TRO.2005.851028","article-title":"Automated evolutionary design, robustness, and adaptation of sidewinding locomotion of a simulated snake-like robot","volume":"21","author":"Tanev","year":"2005","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Robot."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sanfilippo, F., Hua, T.M., and Bos, S. (2020, January 7\u201310). A comparison between a two feedback control loop and a reinforcement learning algorithm for compliant low-cost series elastic actuators. Proceedings of the 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2020), Maui, HI, USA.","DOI":"10.24251\/HICSS.2020.110"},{"key":"ref_38","unstructured":"Kendoul, F. (2013). Autonomous Control Systems and Vehicles, Springer."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ra\u00f1\u00f3, I., Egu\u00edluz, A.G., and Sanfilippo, F. (2018, January 18\u201321). Bridging the gap between bio-inspired steering and locomotion: A braitenberg 3a snake robot. Proceedings of the IEEE 15th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision (ICARCV), Singapore.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICARCV.2018.8581251"},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hanssen, K.G., Transeth, A.A., Sanfilippo, F., Liljeb\u00e4ck, P., and Stavdahl, \u00d8. (2020, January 14\u201316). Path Planning for Perception-Driven Obstacle-Aided Snake Robot Locomotion. Proceedings of the IEEE 16th International Workshop on Advanced Motion Control (AMC), Kristiansand, Norway.","DOI":"10.1109\/AMC44022.2020.9244366"},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"59","DOI":"10.18178\/ijmerr.11.2.59-65","article-title":"Combining Grasping with Adaptive Path Following and Locomotion for Modular Snake","volume":"11","author":"Sanfilippo","year":"2022","journal-title":"Int. J. Mech. Eng. Robot. Res."},{"key":"ref_42","unstructured":"Sanfilippo, F. (2018, January 6\u20137). Perception-Driven Obstacle-Aided Locomotion (POAL) of Learning Snake Robots. Proceedings of the Workshop on Accountability of Artificial Intelligence, Bologna, Italy."}],"container-title":["Robotics"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2218-6581\/11\/2\/42\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T22:48:11Z","timestamp":1760136491000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2218-6581\/11\/2\/42"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,1]]},"references-count":42,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,4]]}},"alternative-id":["robotics11020042"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/robotics11020042","relation":{},"ISSN":["2218-6581"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2218-6581","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,1]]}}}