Collaborative Line-of-Sight Guidance-Based Robust Formation Control for a Multi-Snake Robot

For the collaborative formation control problem of a multi-snake robot with uncertain sideslip and lumped unknowns, this study proposed collaborative line-of-sight (LOS) guidance and consensus-based path variable, which enables snake robots to track multiple parametric paths in a fixed formation. Meanwhile, the improved finite-time sideslip observer effectively compensates for the kinematic deviation, thereby improving the accuracy of the multi-snake robot's path tracking. A robust adaptive controller based on an integral sliding mode manifold is developed to eliminate external disturbances. The model uncertainty and time-varying disturbances are comprehensively involved and incorporated as lumped unknowns in dynamics. The prediction-based RBF neural network estimators are derived to approximate unknowns and compensate controllers. The Lyapunov theory is adopted to prove the stability of formation errors for snake robots in the closed-loop system. Simulation and experiment results show the practicability and superiority of this work.