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Advances in Industrial Control

For further volumes:

www.springer.com/series/1412
Pål Liljebäck r Kristin Y. Pettersen r
Øyvind Stavdahl r Jan Tommy Gravdahl

Snake Robots

Modelling, Mechatronics, and Control

Pål Liljebäck Øyvind Stavdahl
Applied Cybernetics Department of Engineering Cybernetics
SINTEF ICT Norwegian University of Science &
Trondheim, Norway Technology
and Trondheim, Norway
Department of Engineering Cybernetics
Norwegian University of Science & Jan Tommy Gravdahl
Technology Department of Engineering Cybernetics
Trondheim, Norway Norwegian University of Science &
Technology
Kristin Y. Pettersen Trondheim, Norway
Department of Engineering Cybernetics
Norwegian University of Science &
Technology
Trondheim, Norway

The following images in the book are used under license from Shutterstock.com:
Image of snake on page 1: Copyright Angel Simon, 2011.
Image in Fig. 1.2b: Copyright RedTC, 2011.
Image in Fig. 1.3: Copyright Srdjan Draskovic, 2011.
Image in Fig. 1.4: Copyright photoBeard, 2011.
Image of snake on page 287: Copyright Steve Bower, 2011.
The following images in the book are used under license from Dreamstime.com:
Images in Fig. 1.5: Copyright Isselee, 2011.
ISSN 1430-9491 ISSN 2193-1577 (electronic)
Advances in Industrial Control
ISBN 978-1-4471-2995-0 ISBN 978-1-4471-2996-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4471-2996-7
Springer London Heidelberg New York Dordrecht

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012938883

© Springer-Verlag London 2013

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection
with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered
and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of
this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the
Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer.
Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations
are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of pub-
lication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any
errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect
to the material contained herein.

Printed on acid-free paper

Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)

To our families
Series Editors’ Foreword

The series Advances in Industrial Control aims to report and encourage technol-
ogy transfer in control engineering. The rapid development of control technology
has an impact on all areas of the control discipline. New theory, new controllers,
actuators, sensors, new industrial processes, computer methods, new applications,
new philosophies, . . . , new challenges. Much of this development work resides in
industrial reports, feasibility study papers and the reports of advanced collaborative
projects. The series offers an opportunity for researchers to present an extended ex-
position of such new work in all aspects of industrial control for wider and rapid
dissemination.
Over the years the Advances in Industrial Control series has been very fortunate
in publishing monographs that were often seminal for the development of new ar-
eas in control systems theory and industrial technology. These monographs were
often written by young researchers making their way in the industrial control field
or were a report of a substantial research project that was now ready for holistic
presentation and dissemination. For a monograph series that spans two decades, it is
actually quite easy to find examples of this type of motivational text. From the early
years of the series, Iterative Learning Control for Deterministic Systems by Kevin
L. Moore (ISBN 978-3-540-19707-2, 1992) and Autotuning of PID Controllers by
Cheng-Ching Yu (ISBN 978-3-540-76250-8, 1999) are good examples. In more re-
cent years we can cite Control of Fuel Cell Power Systems by Jay T. Pukrushpan,
Anna G. Stefanopoulou, and Huei Peng (ISBN 978-1-85233-816-9, 2004), Predic-
tive Functional Control by Jacques Richalet and Donal O’Donovan (ISBN 978-
1-84882-492-8, 2009) and finally Internet-Based Control Systems by Shuang-Hua
Yang (ISBN 978-1-84996-358-9, 2011) as typical Advances in Industrial Control
monographs that are studied as key texts for their respective topics.
Clearly Snake Robots by Pål Liljebäck, Kristin Y. Pettersen, Øyvind Stavdahl,
and Jan Tommy Gravdahl is going to be a much read, studied, and cited monograph
in this particular field of robot development. After a truly fascinating introductory
chapter that examines among other topics, biological snake motion, the monograph
is structured into two parts. Part I investigates and reports on modelling, technology,
and control for snake robot locomotion in a planar (flat) environment (Chaps. 2–8).

vii
viii Series Editors’ Foreword

Part II moves on to snake locomotion in a cluttered environment with stationary

objects (Chaps. 9–13). This group of chapters introduces and explores the concept
of “obstacle-aided” locomotion. So much of mobile robot technology is concerned
with obstacle avoidance, so it is interesting to see a robot application that exploits the
contact with objects (obstacles) in the environment to aid locomotion. The mono-
graph closes with a concluding chapter, three short technical appendices, a useful
Glossary of technical terms, and an exhaustive Index.
The authors have succeeded in writing a well-structured text that is both a scien-
tific and an engineering monograph. The structure and contents of the monograph
can be accessed in several different ways. For example, the monograph presents
mathematical models that elucidate snake motion per se; this describes important
fundamental scientific principles in the field. Alternatively, the monograph can be
used as a source for up-to-date survey and review material on snake-robotic engi-
neering and technology; apart from the thorough historical review in Chap. 1, each
subsequent chapter opens with a section that creates the context and reviews the
past literature relating to the work to be presented by the authors. One of the at-
tractive features of the monograph is the way in which the authors use the chapter
sequence to work through increasingly complex issues in the understanding, control
and technology of snake robots. Such careful attention to structure allows the expert
researcher and the researcher new to the field rapidly to assess the importance of
the material presented and its relation to past developments. Finally, the monograph
presents the authors’ own research and development in the field. This research cov-
ers the full spectrum of mathematical modelling, control design, simulation studies
and fascinating experimental demonstrator prototypes. Closing the monograph is a
chapter on the future research and technological challenges for snake robot locomo-
tion (Chap. 14).
The series Editors have no doubt that the control and robotics community will
find much of interest in this monograph. The monograph’s progress through the
historical record for the field, the proofs and descriptions of fundamental snake robot
principles and the practical demonstrations using robot prototypes will ensure this
new entry to the Advances in Industrial Control series becomes a key reference and
source text for snake-robot locomotion research and development.
Industrial Control Centre M.J. Grimble
Glasgow M.A. Johnson
Scotland, UK
Preface

The purpose of this book is to present theoretical and practical topics related to
snake robots. Snake robots are robotic mechanisms designed to move like biologi-
cal snakes. The advantage of such mechanisms is their ability to move and operate
in challenging environments where human presence is unwanted or impossible. Fu-
ture applications of these mechanisms include search and rescue operations, inspec-
tion and maintenance in industrial process plants, and subsea operations. Research
on snake robots has been conducted for several decades. For instance, the world’s
first snake robot was developed in Japan already in 1972. There are, however, still
many theoretical and practical aspects of snake robot locomotion which have not
yet been addressed in the snake robot literature. Current literature is characterised
by numerous different approaches to modelling, development, and control of these
mechanisms, but a unified theoretical foundation of snake robots has not yet been
established.
In this book, we attempt to target these limitations of current literature on snake
robots. The main goal of the book is to contribute to the mathematical foundation of
the control theory of snake robots, and also stimulate and support future research on
these fascinating mechanisms. To this end, the book is a complete treatment of snake
robotics, with topics ranging from mathematical modelling techniques, mechatronic
design and implementation, and control design strategies. In particular, several new
approaches to modelling snake robot locomotion are presented. Moreover, numer-
ous properties of snake robot dynamics are derived using nonlinear system analysis
tools, and several new control strategies for snake robots are proposed. The book
also describes the development of two snake robots that are employed to exper-
imentally validate many of the theoretical results. Whereas previous literature has
mainly focused on flat surface locomotion, a distinct feature of the book is the strong
focus on locomotion in uneven and cluttered environments. The organisation of the
book is detailed in Sect. 1.5.
Although the results presented in this book are new and based on recent confer-
ence and journal publications, they are presented at an initial level which is acces-
sible to audiences with a standard undergraduate background in control theory or
mechatronics. The book is written in a clear and easily understandable manner with
numerous figures and pictures which help illustrate and visualise the material. The
target audience of this book includes academic researchers and graduate students
with an interest in snake robots or underactuated systems in general. The book may

ix
x Preface

also be used for self-study or as a reference by engineers and applied mathemati-

cians, and by anyone who would like to find out more about the exciting field of
snake robotics. We believe the book will be particularly useful to new researchers
taking on a topic related to snake robotics since the book provides an extensive
overview of the snake robot literature and also represents a suitable starting point
for research in this area.
We are indebted to a number of people who have been integral to the completion
of this book. We express our sincere gratitude to Professor Scott David Kelly (Uni-
versity of North Carolina at Charlotte), Professor Shugen Ma (Ritsumeikan Uni-
versity), and Professor Ole Morten Aamo (Department of Engineering Cybernetics
at NTNU) for their feedback to the material in this book in conjunction with their
participation in the doctoral dissertation of Pål Liljebäck.
Furthermore, we gratefully acknowledge all the support we have received from
our friends and colleagues at the Department of Engineering Cybernetics at NTNU.
In particular, we thank Idar Haugstuen for our cooperation in conjunction with his
M.Sc. project on snake robots in 2009/2010. Moreover, we thank Christian Holden
for providing useful feedback to the material in this book, and we thank Alexey
Pavlov for our talks and his many useful suggestions regarding our research. For
their untiring help and efforts with the experimental systems considered in this book,
we thank Terje Haugen, Per Inge Snildal, and Glenn Angel at the mechanical work-
shop of the department. We also thank Stefano Bertelli for his positive spirit and for
his help with documenting the experimental results.
We owe many thanks to our friends and colleagues at SINTEF Applied Cyber-
netics for their support and for contributing to a positive and stimulating work en-
vironment. In particular, we thank the Research Director, Sture Holmstrøm, for his
enthusiasm and his willingness to financially support research on snake robots. We
are thankful to Aksel A. Transeth, Sigurd Fjerdingen, and Erik Kyrkjebø for their
positivity and for our many interesting discussions related to snake robots over the
last years. A special recognition goes to Aksel A. Transeth for contributing to the
research underlying this book with his knowledge and expertise of snake robots. We
thank Geir Mathisen, Espen Helle, and Knut Vidar Skjersli for their work on cir-
cuit boards and software for the experimental systems considered in the book. We
are grateful to Anders Beitnes for conceiving the idea of a self-propelled fire hose,
which initiated research on snake robots at SINTEF and NTNU. We also thank
Wheeko and Kulko for their outstanding and obedient performance during experi-
ments, and for never complaining about late work hours.
Finally, we express our deepest gratitude to the Norwegian University of Science
and Technology (NTNU) and SINTEF for providing the resources and environment
that made it possible to write this book, and to the Research Council of Norway for
supporting our research on snake robots.
Trondheim, Norway Pål Liljebäck
Kristin Y. Pettersen
Øyvind Stavdahl
Jan Tommy Gravdahl
Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Background and Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Biological Snakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.1 The Anatomy of Snakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.2 The Locomotion of Snakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.3 Previous Work on Modelling, Mechatronics, and Control of Snake
Robots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.3.1 Previous Work on Modelling and Analysis of Snake Robots 10
1.3.2 Previous Work on Implementation of Physical Snake
Robots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.3.3 Previous Work on Control of Snake Robots . . . . . . . . . 22
1.4 The Scope of This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
1.4.1 An Analytical Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
1.4.2 Snake Robots Without a Fixed Base . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
1.4.3 A Planar Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
1.4.4 Locomotion Without Sideslip Constraints . . . . . . . . . . 28
1.4.5 Motion Based on Lateral Undulation . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
1.5 An Outline of This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
1.5.1 Outline of Part I—Snake Robot Locomotion on Flat
Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
1.5.2 Outline of Part II—Snake Robot Locomotion in Cluttered
Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
1.6 Publications Underlying This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Part I Snake Robot Locomotion on Flat Surfaces

2 A Complex Model of Snake Robot Locomotion on Planar Surfaces . 39
2.1 The Relation Between This Chapter and Previous Literature . . . . 40
2.2 Basic Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.3 The Parameters of the Snake Robot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.4 The Kinematics of the Snake Robot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

xi
xii Contents

2.5 The Ground Friction Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

2.5.1 The Friction Models and Their Role in This Book . . . . . 45
2.5.2 A Coulomb Friction Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
2.5.3 A Viscous Friction Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
2.6 The Dynamics of the Snake Robot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2.7 Separating Actuated and Unactuated Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . 50
2.8 Partial Feedback Linearisation of the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
2.9 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3 Development of a Mechanical Snake Robot for Motion Across
Planar Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.1 The Relation Between This Chapter and Previous Literature . . . . 55
3.2 The Joint Actuation Mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.3 The Passive Wheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.4 The Power and Control System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.5 The Experimental Setup of the Snake Robot . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.6 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4 Analysis and Synthesis of Snake Robot Locomotion . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.1 The Relation Between This Chapter and Previous Literature . . . . 64
4.2 Introduction to Nonlinear Controllability Analysis . . . . . . . . . 65
4.3 Stabilisability Properties of Planar Snake Robots . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.4 Controllability Analysis of Planar Snake Robots . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.4.1 Controllability with Isotropic Viscous Friction . . . . . . . 69
4.4.2 Controllability with Anisotropic Viscous Friction . . . . . 69
4.5 Analysis of Propulsive Forces During Snake Locomotion . . . . . 74
4.6 Synthesis of Propulsive Motion for the Snake Robot . . . . . . . . 76
4.7 The Gait Pattern Lateral Undulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
4.8 The Control System of the Joints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.8.1 A Simple Joint Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.8.2 An Exponentially Stable Joint Controller . . . . . . . . . . 82
4.9 Analysis of Turning Motion During Lateral Undulation . . . . . . 82
4.10 Analysis of Relative Motion Between Consecutive Links During
Lateral Undulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.11 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5 Path Following Control and Analysis of Snake Robots Based on the
Poincaré Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.1 The Relation Between This Chapter and Previous Literature . . . . 90
5.2 Introduction to Poincaré Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.2.1 General Description of Poincaré Maps . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.2.2 Practical Application of Poincaré Maps . . . . . . . . . . . 93
5.3 Straight Line Path Following Control of Snake Robots . . . . . . . 94
5.3.1 Control Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
5.3.2 The Straight Line Path Following Controller . . . . . . . . 95
5.4 Stability Analysis of the Path Following Controller Based on the
Poincaré Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Contents xiii

5.4.1Converting the Snake Robot Model to a Time-Periodic

Autonomous System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
5.4.2 Specification of the Poincaré Section for the Snake Robot . 97
5.4.3 Stability Analysis of the Poincaré Map . . . . . . . . . . . 98
5.5 Simulation Study: The Performance of the Path Following
Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
5.6 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
6 A Simplified Model of Snake Robot Locomotion on Planar Surfaces 103
6.1 The Relation Between This Chapter and Previous Literature . . . . 104
6.2 Overview of the Modelling Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
6.3 The Kinematics of the Snake Robot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
6.4 The Ground Friction Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
6.5 The Dynamics of the Snake Robot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
6.5.1 The Translational Dynamics of the Snake Robot . . . . . . 112
6.5.2 The Rotational Dynamics of the Snake Robot . . . . . . . 114
6.6 The Complete Simplified Model of the Snake Robot . . . . . . . . 115
6.7 Discussion of the Simplified Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
6.7.1 Applications of the Simplified Model . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
6.7.2 Accuracy Issues of the Simplified Kinematics . . . . . . . 116
6.7.3 Accuracy Issues of the Ground Friction Model . . . . . . . 117
6.7.4 Accuracy Issues of the Rotational Dynamics . . . . . . . . 118
6.8 Stabilisability Analysis of the Simplified Model . . . . . . . . . . 118
6.9 Controllability Analysis of the Simplified Model . . . . . . . . . . 119
6.10 Simulation Study: Comparison Between the Complex and the
Simplified Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
6.10.1 Simulation Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
6.10.2 Relationship Between the Joint Coordinates in the
Complex and Simplified Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
6.10.3 Comparison of Straight Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
6.10.4 Comparison of Turning Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
6.11 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
7 Analysis of Snake Robot Locomotion Based on Averaging Theory . . 131
7.1 The Relation Between This Chapter and Previous Literature . . . . 132
7.2 Introduction to Averaging Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
7.3 The Velocity Dynamics During Lateral Undulation . . . . . . . . . 133
7.4 The Averaged Velocity Dynamics During Lateral Undulation . . . 135
7.5 The Steady-State Behaviour of the Velocity Dynamics During
Lateral Undulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
7.6 Relationships Between the Gait Parameters and the Forward
Velocity During Lateral Undulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
7.7 Simulation Study: Comparison Between the Original and the
Averaged Velocity Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
7.7.1 Simulation Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
7.7.2 Simulation Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
xiv Contents

7.8 Simulation Study: Investigation of the Relationships Between

Gait Parameters and Forward Velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
7.8.1 Simulation Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
7.8.2 Simulation Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
7.9 Experimental Study: Investigation of the Relationships Between
Gait Parameters and Forward Velocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
7.9.1 Layout of the Experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
7.9.2 Experimental Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
7.10 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
8 Path Following Control of Snake Robots Through a Cascaded
Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
8.1 The Relation Between This Chapter and Previous Literature . . . . 154
8.2 Mathematical Preliminaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
8.3 Straight Line Path Following Control of Snake Robots . . . . . . . 157
8.3.1 Control Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
8.3.2 Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
8.3.3 Model Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
8.3.4 The Straight Line Path Following Controller . . . . . . . . 160
8.3.5 The Stability Properties of the Path Following Controller . 163
8.3.6 Proof of Theorem 8.2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
8.4 Path Following Control of Snake Robots Along Curved Paths . . . 167
8.4.1 Comments on the Curved Path Following Controller . . . . 167
8.4.2 The Curved Path Following Controller . . . . . . . . . . . 168
8.5 Waypoint Guidance Control of Snake Robots . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
8.5.1 Description of the Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
8.5.2 The Waypoint Guidance Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
8.6 Simulation Study: The Performance of the Straight Line Path
Following Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
8.6.1 Simulation Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
8.6.2 Simulation Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
8.7 Experimental Study: The Performance of the Straight Line Path
Following Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
8.7.1 Implementation Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
8.7.2 Implementation of the Path Following Controller of the
Physical Snake Robot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
8.7.3 Experimental Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
8.8 Simulation Study: The Performance of the Waypoint Guidance
Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
8.8.1 Implementation of the Guidance Strategy with the
Simplified Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
8.8.2 Implementation of the Guidance Strategy with the
Complex Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
8.8.3 Simulation Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
8.9 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Contents xv

Part II Snake Robot Locomotion in Cluttered Environments

9 Introduction to Part II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
10 A Hybrid Model of Snake Robot Locomotion in Cluttered
Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
10.1 The Relation Between This Chapter and Previous Literature . . . 194
10.2 Hybrid Dynamical Systems and Complementarity Systems . . . . 195
10.2.1 Modelling of Hybrid Dynamical Systems . . . . . . . . . 195
10.2.2 Complementarity Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
10.3 The Dynamics of the Snake Robot Without Obstacles . . . . . . . 197
10.3.1 The Ground Friction Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
10.3.2 The Equations of Motion Without Obstacles . . . . . . . 199
10.4 Overview of the Contact Modelling Approach . . . . . . . . . . . 200
10.5 Detection of Obstacle Impacts and Detachments . . . . . . . . . 203
10.6 The Continuous Dynamics of the Snake Robot During
Constrained Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
10.6.1 The Unilateral Constraints from the Obstacles . . . . . . 205
10.6.2 The Constrained Dynamics of the Snake Robot Without
Obstacle Friction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
10.6.3 The Constrained Dynamics of the Snake Robot with
Obstacle Friction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
10.7 The Discontinuous Dynamics of the Snake Robot During
Obstacle Impacts and Detachments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
10.7.1 The Discontinuous Dynamics of the Snake Robot During
Obstacle Impacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
10.7.2 The Discontinuous Dynamics of the Snake Robot During
Obstacle Detachments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
10.8 The Complete Hybrid Model of the Snake Robot in an Obstacle
Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
10.8.1 The Jump Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
10.8.2 The Jump Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
10.8.3 The Flow Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
10.8.4 The Flow Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
10.8.5 Summary of the Complete Hybrid Plant . . . . . . . . . . 215
10.9 Simulation Study: Comparison of the Hybrid Model with
Previous Experimental and Simulation Results . . . . . . . . . . 215
10.10 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
11 Development of a Mechanical Snake Robot for Obstacle-Aided
Locomotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
11.1 The Relation Between This Chapter and Previous Literature . . . 221
11.2 Overview of the Snake Robot Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
11.3 The Exterior Gliding Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
11.4 The Contact Force Measurement System . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
11.4.1 Assumptions Underlying the Sensor System . . . . . . . 224
xvi Contents

11.4.2 The Sensor System Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

11.4.3 Calculation of Contact Forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
11.5 The Power and Control System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
11.5.1 The Power System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
11.5.2 The Control System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
11.6 The Performance of the Snake Robot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
11.6.1 Experimental Validation of the Contact Force
Measurement System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
11.6.2 Demonstration of Motion Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
11.7 The Experimental Setup of the Snake Robot . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
11.8 An Alternative Approach for Measuring External Contact Forces 235
11.9 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
12 Hybrid Control of Obstacle-Aided Locomotion . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
12.1 The Relation Between This Chapter and Previous Literature . . . 240
12.2 Preliminary Note on Hybrid Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
12.3 Control Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
12.4 Notation and Basic Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
12.5 The Hybrid Controller for Obstacle-Aided Locomotion . . . . . . 244
12.5.1 The Leader-Follower Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
12.5.2 The Jam Detection Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
12.5.3 The Jam Resolution Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
12.5.4 The Joint Angle Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
12.5.5 The Complete Hybrid Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
12.6 Summary of the Closed-Loop System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
12.7 Simulation Study: The Performance of the Hybrid Controller . . . 252
12.7.1 Simulation Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
12.7.2 Attempting Lateral Undulation in Open-Loop in a
Structured Obstacle Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
12.7.3 Hybrid Controller in an Obstacle Environment . . . . . . 253
12.8 Experimental Study: The Performance of the Hybrid Controller . 255
12.8.1 Experimental Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
12.8.2 Experimental Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
12.9 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
13 Path Following Control of Snake Robots in Cluttered Environments 265
13.1 The Relation Between This Chapter and Previous Literature . . . 266
13.2 A Controller Framework for Snake Robot Locomotion . . . . . . 266
13.3 Straight Line Path Following Control in Cluttered Environments . 268
13.3.1 Control Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
13.3.2 Notation and Basic Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
13.3.3 The Body Wave Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
13.3.4 The Environment Adaptation Component . . . . . . . . . 272
13.3.5 The Heading Control Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
13.3.6 The Joint Angle Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
13.3.7 Summary of the Path Following Controller . . . . . . . . 274
Contents xvii

13.4 Waypoint Guidance Control in Cluttered Environments . . . . . . 275

13.5 Simulation Study: The Performance of the Path Following
Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
13.5.1 Simulation Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
13.5.2 Simulation Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
13.6 Experimental Study: The Performance of the Environment
Adaptation Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
13.6.1 Experimental Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
13.6.2 Experimental Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
13.7 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
14 Future Research Challenges of Snake Robot Locomotion . . . . . . . 287
14.1 Control Design Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
14.2 Hardware Design Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Appendix A Proof of Lemma 8.2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Appendix B Proof of Lemma 8.3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Appendix C Low-Pass Filtering Reference Models . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
C.1 A 2nd-Order Low-Pass Filtering Reference Model . . . . . . . . 297
C.2 A 3rd-Order Low-Pass Filtering Reference Model . . . . . . . . 298
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Other documents randomly have
different content
 “I declare, Jack, were it not that the consequences might be
serious, I should rather enjoy seeing long-limbed Brice and that wild,
red-haired Scotchman of yours, led by you, charging an angry mob
of blacks, armed with those antiquated cutlasses that your fellows
brought from the ship. The blacks would surely run in pure fright at
the supposed resurrection of the ancient buccaneers. No scene in a
comic opera could compare with what you and your men would
present,” said Mr. Dunlap in an amused tone, as he rocked back and
forth in an easy chair on the veranda, and chatted with his
namesake, Jack.
“It might be amusing to you, sir,” replied Jack laughing, “but it
would be death to any black who came within the swing of either of
the cutlasses carried by Brice and McLeod. I picked up a half dozen
of those old swords at a sale in Manila, and decorated my cabin with
them. When I told the men that there might be a fight they could
find no other weapons on board ship so denuded my cabin of its
decorations and brought them along. Of course I have a revolver but
in a rush those old cutlasses could do fearful execution. They are
heavy and as sharp as razors.”
“While I am unwilling to take even a remote risk with Lucy and
your mother in the house, still in my opinion there is not one chance
in a million that anything but bluff and bluster will come of this
muttering. Admiral Snave is always anxious for a fight, and the wish
is father of the thought in this alarm,” said the old gentleman.
“Why isn’t Burton here?” asked Jack almost angrily.
“He is up stairs. He has been feeling ill all day and asked not to be
disturbed unless he be needed. I shall let him rest. However, he has
a revolver and is an excellent shot and will prove a valuable aid to us
should the fools attempt to molest the premises.”
For an hour or two Brice and McLeod exchanged an occasional
word or two but gradually these brief speeches became less frequent
and finally ceased altogether. Mr. Dunlap and Jack carried on a
desultory conversation for some time, but had sat in silent
communion with their own thoughts for possibly an hour when,
under the somnific influence of the night songsters, the Scotch ship-
carpenter yawned, rose to his feet and stretched his long, hairy
arms. He paused in the act and thrust forward his head to catch
some indistinct sound, then growled,
“I hear murmuring like surf on a lee-shore.”
Brice arose and listened for a minute then called out,
“Captain, I hear the sound of bare feet pattering on the highway.”
Jack was on his feet in an instant and ran down the walk to the
gate in the high brick wall that surrounded the premises. He came
running back almost immediately and said in low voice as he
reached the piazza.
“There is a mob coming toward the house, along the road leading
from the mountains. They carry torches and may mean mischief.
Cousin John, will you have Burton called and will you please remain
here to look after the women. Brice you and McLeod get cutlasses
and bring me one also. We will meet the mob at the gate.”
“Oh! It is nothing Jack, maybe a negro frolic. No use arousing
Burton,” said the elder Dunlap.
“If you please, sir, do as I ask. I will be prepared in any event,”
said Jack Dunlap tersely.
“All right, Commander, the laugh will be at your expense,” cried
the amused old gentleman as he ordered a servant to call Burton.
Jack and his two stalwart supporters had barely reached the gate
when the advance guard of the savage horde of black mountaineers
appeared before it. Instantly it flashed upon the mind of the skipper
that if he barred the gate, that then part of the mob might go
around and break over the wall in the rear of the house and attack
the defenceless women.
“Throw open the gate, McLeod, we will meet them here,”
commanded Captain Dunlap, and turning as some one touched his
shoulder, he found Burton at his side, very pale and but half clad,
with a revolver in his hand.
“Glad you are here, Burton.”
“I did not have time to put on my shoes.” said Burton.
The main body of the mob now came up and gathered about the
open gate. The men were armed with clubs and knives and some
few, who were evidently woodsmen, carried axes. Many torches
shed their light over the black and brutal faces, making them appear
more ebony by the white and angry eyes that glared at the men who
stood ready to do battle just within the gateway.
“I wish you people to understand that if you attempt to enter this
gate many of you will be killed.”
Young Dunlap spoke in a quiet voice, as he stood between the
pillars of the gate, but there was such an unmistakable menace in
the steady tone that even the ignorant barbarians understood what
he meant.
For the space of a minute of time the mob hesitated. Suddenly a
tall woodsman struck a sweeping, chopping blow with his ax. The
skipper sprang aside just in time, and as quick as a flash of lightning
a stream of flame poured out of the pistol he held in his hand, and
that woodsman would never chop wood again.
Brice and McLeod had cast aside their coats, and with their long,
sinewy arms bared to the elbows, cutlasses grasped in their strong
hands, they were by Jack’s side in a second.
As the pistol shot rang out it seemed to give the signal for an
assault. With a howl, like wild and enraged animals, the mob rushed
upon the men at the gate. The rush was met by the rapid discharge
of the revolvers held by Dunlap and Burton; for a moment it was
checked, then a shrill voice was heard screaming high above the
howling of the savages,
“Kill the white cow! She has stolen our son from us! Kill the
Yankee robbers! Spare my black goat!”
 Sybella could be heard though concealed by the tall black men of
the mountains who again hurled themselves on the white men who
guarded the gateway.
The revolvers were empty. Jack sent his flying into a black face as
he gripped the hilt of his cutlass and joined old Brice and the
carpenter in the deadly reaping they were doing. Burton having no
other weapon than the revolver, threw it aside and seized a club that
had dropped from the hands of one of the slain blacks.
The sweep of those old cutlasses in the powerful hands that held
them was awful, magnificent; no matter what may have been the
history of those old blades they had never been wielded as now. But
numbers began to tell and the infuriated negroes fought like fiends,
urged on by the old siren Sybella who shrieked out a kind of battle
song of the blacks.
How long the four held back the hundreds none can tell, but it
seemed an age to the fast wearying men who held the gate. A blow
from an ax split McLeod’s head and he fell dead without even a
groan. Brice turned as he heard his shipmate fall and received a
stunning smash on the temple from a club that felled him like an ox
in the shambles.
 “He recklessly rushed in front of Burton.”

Page 286

Jack saw Burton, who was fighting furiously, beset by two savage
blacks armed with axes stuck on long poles. In that supreme
moment of peril the thought of Lucy’s sorrow at loss of her husband,
should she be restored to reason, came to the mind of the great
hearted sailor. He recklessly rushed in front of Burton, severed at a
stroke of his sword the arm of one of Burton’s assailants, and caught
the descending ax of the other when within an inch of the head of
the man who had taken the place in Lucy’s love that he had hoped
for.
Jack Dunlap’s cutlass warded off the blow from Burton but the
sharp ax glanced along the blade and was buried in the broad breast
of Lucy’s knight, and he fell across the bodies of his faithful
followers, Brice and McLeod; Jack’s fast deafening ears caught sound
of—
“Follow me, lads, give them cold steel. Don’t shoot. You may hit
friends! Charge!”
Tom Maxon’s voice was far from jolly now. There was death in
every note of it as, at the head of a body of United States Blue-
jackets, he dashed in among the black barbarians. When he caught
sight of the prostrate, bleeding form of his old school-fellow he
raged like a wounded lion among Sybella’s savage followers.
As the lieutenant saw that the range of fire was free from his
friends, he cried out, hoarse with passion,
“Fire at will. Give them hell!” and he emptied his own revolver into
the huddled crowd of mountaineers, who still stood, brave to
recklessness, hesitating about what to do against the new
adversaries.
The repeating rifles of the Americans soon covered the roadway
with dark corpses. Long lanes were cut by the rapid fire through the
black mass. With howls and yells of mingled terror, rage and
disappointment the mob broke and taking to the jungle disappeared
in the darkness of the adjacent forest.
A sailor kicked aside what he thought was a bundle of rags, and
started back as the torch that he bore revealed the open, fangless
mouth and snake-like, glaring eyes of an old crone of a woman who
in death seemed even more horrible than in life.
A rifle ball, at close range, had shattered Mother Sybella’s skull.
 XVII.
All established rules of the house of “J. Dunlap” were as the laws
of the Medes and Persians to David Chapman, inviolable. When the
hour of twelve struck and neither Mr. John Dunlap nor Mr. Burton
appeared at the office, the Superintendent immediately proceeded
to the residence of Mr. Dunlap.
“I am sorry, Chapman, to have given you the trouble of coming
out here, but the fact is I am not so strong as formerly, and I
expected that Burton would be at the office and thought a day of
repose might benefit me,” remarked Mr. John Dunlap as Chapman
entered his library carrying a bundle of papers this March afternoon.
“Mr. Burton has only been at the office once within the past week
and not more than a dozen times since you all returned from Haiti
some two months ago,” replied the Superintendent, methodically
arranging the various memoranda on the large library table.
“First in order of date is as follows: Douglass and McPherson, the
solicitors at Glasgow, write that they have purchased the annuity for
old Mrs. McLeod and that the income secured to her is far larger
than any possible comfort or even luxury can require; they also say
that the lot in the graveyard has been secured and that the mother
of the dead ship carpenter is filled with gratitude for the granite
stone you have provided to mark her son’s grave and that no nobler
epitaph for any Scotsman could be carved than the one suggested
by you to be cut on the stone, ‘Died defending innocent women;’
they expect the body to arrive within a few days and will follow
instructions concerning the reinterment of the remains of gallant
McLeod; they add that beyond all expenditures ordered they will
hold a balance to our credit and ask what is your pleasure
concerning same, that the four thousand pounds remitted by you
was far too large a sum.”
 “Far too small! Tell them to buy a cottage for McLeod’s mother and
draw at sight for more money, that the cottage may be a good one.
Why! Chapman, McLeod was a hero; but they were all of them that.
He, however, gave his life in our defense and there is no money
value that can repay that debt to him and his,” exclaimed Mr. Dunlap
earnestly, and leaning forward in the excitement that the recollection
of the past recalled, continued:
“David, the dead were heaped about the spot where McLeod,
Brice and Jack fell like corded fire-wood. When I could leave the
women, Lieutenant Maxon and his men had dispersed the blacks, I
fairly waded in blood to reach the place where Maxon and Burton
were bending over Jack. It was a fearful sight. It had been an awful
struggle, but it was all awful that night. I dared not leave the
women, yet I knew that even my weak help was needed at the gate.
Had my messenger not met Maxon on the road, to whom notice of
the intended attack had been given by a friendly black, we had all
been killed.”
The excited old gentleman paused to regain his breath and
resumed the story of that dreadful experience.
“Martha Dunlap is the kind of woman to be mother of a hero. She
was as calm and brave as her son and helped me like a real heroine
in keeping the others quiet. We told Lucy it was only a jubilee
among the natives and that they were shouting and shooting off
firearms in their sport along the highway. God forgive me for the
falsehood, but it served to keep our poor girl perfectly calm and she
does not even now know to the contrary.” Mr. Dunlap reverently
inclined his head when he spoke of that most excusable lie that he
had told.
“Jack does not get all of his nerve and courage from the Dunlap
blood, that is sure! When the surgeon was examining the great gash
in his breast, Martha stood at his side and held the basin; her hand
never trembled though her tearless face was as white as snow. All
the others of us, I fear, were blubbering like babies, I know, anyhow
Tom Maxon was whimpering more like a lass than the brave and
terrible fighter that he is. When the surgeon gave us the joyful news
that the blow of the ax had been stopped by the strong breast bone
over our boy’s brave heart, we were all ready to shout with
gladness, but Martha then, woman like, broke down and began
weeping.”
There was rather a suspicious moisture in the eyes of the relator
of the scene, as he thought over the occurrences of that night in
Haiti. Even though all danger was past and his beloved namesake,
Jack Dunlap, was now so far recovered as to be able to walk about,
true somewhat paler in complexion and with one arm bound across
his breast, but entirely beyond danger from the blow of the
desperate Haitian axman.
“That fighting devil of an American admiral soon cleared Port au
Prince of the insurgents and wished me to take up my residence at
the consulate, but I had enough of Haiti, for awhile anyway. So as
soon as Jack could safely be moved, and old Brice, whose skull must
be made of iron, had come around sufficiently after that smashing
blow in the head, to take command of the ‘Adams’ and navigate her
to Boston, I bundled everybody belonging to me aboard and sailed
for home.” The word home came with a sigh of relief from Mr.
Dunlap’s lips as he settled back in his chair.
“When we heard of your frightful experience, I had some faint
hope that the shock might have restored Mrs. Burton to her normal
condition of mind,” said Chapman.
“Well, in the first place Lucy learned nothing concerning the affair,
and was simply told when she called for Jack that he was not well
and would be absent from her for a short time. But even had she
received a nervous shock from the harrowing events of that night,
the experts in mental disorders inform me that it is most unlikely
that any good result could have been produced; that as the primary
cause of her dementia is disappointed hope, expectation, and the
recoil of the purest and best outpouring of her heart, that the only
shock at all probable to bring about the desired change must come
from a similar source,” answered Mr. Dunlap.
 “To proceed with my report,” said the Superintendent glancing
over some papers.
“Lieutenant Maxon is not wealthy, in fact, has only his pay from
the United States, and while his family is one of the oldest and most
highly respected in Massachusetts all the members of it are far from
rich. The watch ordered made in New York will be finished by the
time the U.S. Ship Delaware arrives, which will not be before next
month.”
“That all being as you have ascertained, I am going to make a
requisition upon your ingenuity, David. You must secure the placing
in Maxon’s hands of twenty one-thousand dollar bills with no other
explanation than that it is from ‘an admirer.’ The handsome, gay
fellow may think some doting old dowager sent it to him. The watch
I will present as a slight token of my friendship when I have him
here to dine with me, and he can never suspect me in the money
matter.” Mr. Dunlap chuckled at the deep cunning of the diabolical
scheme.
Chapman evidently was accustomed to the unstinted munificence
of the house of Dunlap, for he accepted the instruction quite as a
mere detail of the business, made a few notes and with his pen held
between his teeth as he folded the paper, mumbled:
“I’ll see that he gets the money all right, sir, without knowing
where it comes from.”
“Here are several things that Mr. Burton, who is familiar with the
preceding transactions, should pass upon, but as he is so seldom at
the office, I have had no opportunity to lay them before him,”
continued the ever vigilant Chapman, turning over a number of
documents.
“I know even less than you do about Burton’s department, so
make out the best way that you can under the circumstances.”
“Is Mr. Burton ill, sir, or what is the reason why he is absent from
the office so much?” asked Chapman, to whom it seemed that the
greatest deprivation in life must be loss of ability to be present daily
in the office of J. Dunlap.
“I am utterly at a loss to explain Burton’s conduct, especially since
our return from Haiti. He is morbid, melancholy, and seems to avoid
the society of all those who formerly were his chosen associates and
companions. He calls or sends here daily with religious regularity to
ascertain the condition of Lucy’s health, and occasionally asks Jack
to accompany him on a ride behind his fine team. You know that he
is aware that Jack saved his life by taking the blow on his own
breast that was aimed at Burton’s head. He was devoted to Jack on
the voyage home and here, until Jack’s recovery was assured
beyond a doubt, but now he acts so peculiarly that I don’t know
what to make of him,” replied the perplexed old gentleman.
“Humph! Humph!” grunted Chapman, in a disparaging tone, and
resumed the examination of the sheets of paper before him.
Selecting one, he said:
“I find Malloy, the father of the girl, who was the victim of that
nameless crime and afterward murdered, to be a respectable,
worthy man, poor, but in need of no assistance. He is a porter at
Brown Brothers. It appears that the girl, who was only fifteen years
of age, was one of the nursery maids in the Greenleaf family, and
had obtained permission to visit her father’s home on the night of
the crime and was on her way there when she was assaulted.”
“What has been done by the Police Department?” asked Mr.
Dunlap eagerly.
“To tell the truth, very little. The detectives seem mystified by a
crime of so rare occurrence in our section that it has shocked the
whole of New England. However, I know what would have happened
had the crowd assembled around Malloy’s house when the body was
brought home, been able to lay hands on the perpetrator of the
deed, the whole police force of Boston notwithstanding.”
“What do you mean, David?”
 “I mean that the wretch would have been lynched,” exclaimed
Chapman.
“That had been a disgrace to the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts,” said the old gentleman warmly.
“That may or may not be, sir. Malloy and his friends are all
peaceable, law-abiding citizens. Malloy was almost a maniac, not at
the death of his child but the rest of the crime, and the agony of the
heartbroken father was too much for the human nature of his
neighbors, and human nature is the same in New England as
elsewhere in our land.”
“But the law will punish crime and must be respected no matter
what may be the provocation to ignore its regular administration of
justice,” said Mr. Dunlap with a judicial air.
“Truth is, sir, that one can hardly comprehend a father’s feelings
under such circumstances, and I don’t imagine there is a great
difference between the paternal heart in Massachusetts and in
Mississippi. Human nature is much alike in the same race in every
clime. Men of the North may occasionally be slower to wrath but are
fearfully in earnest when aroused by an outrage,” rejoined Chapman.
“I frankly confess, David, that I recognize that it is one thing for
me to sit here calmly in my library and coolly discuss a crime in
which I have no direct personal interest, and announce that justice
according to written law only should be administered, but it would
be quite a different state of mind with which I should regard this
crime if one of my own family were the victim of the brute’s attack. I
fear then I should forget about my calm theory of allowing the
regular execution of justice and everything else, even my age and
hoary head, and be foremost in seeking quick revenge on the
wretch,” said the old New Englander hotly.
“Knowing you and your family as I do, sir, I’ll make oath that you
would head the mob of lynchers.”
“My brother James, who was the soul of honor and a citizen of
whom the Commonwealth was justly proud, was very liberal in his
opinion of lynching for this crime. It was the single criminal act for
which his noble, charitable heart could find no excuse. I think even
my brother James, model citizen though he was, would have been a
law-forgetting man under such circumstances.”
Old John Dunlap’s voice grew soft and tender when he mentioned
the name of his beloved brother, and either Chapman became
extraordinarily near-sighted or the papers in his hand required close
scrutiny.
“I have published the notice of the reward of one thousand dollars
offered by our house for the capture of the perpetrator of the crime,”
said the Superintendent rather huskily, changing the subject from
that of the character of his old master.
“That is well, we are the oldest business house in Boston, and
none can think it presumptuous that we should be anxious to erase
this stain from the escutcheon of our Commonwealth. I wish every
inducement offered that may lead to the apprehension of the
criminal.” Mr. Dunlap stopped short as if suddenly some new idea
had occurred to his mind, and then exclaimed:
“David, you possess a wonderful faculty for fathoming deep and
complex mysteries. Why don’t you seek to discover the perpetrator
of this horrible crime?”
David Chapman was not in the habit of blushing, but certainly his
cheeks took on an unusually bright crimson hue, as Mr. Dunlap
asked the question, and he answered in a somewhat abashed
manner, as though detected in some act of youthful folly.
“I confess, sir, that I am making a little investigation in my own
way. There are a few trifling circumstances and fragments of
evidence left by the criminal that were considered unworthy of
attention by the police that I am tracing up, like an amateur
Sherlock Holmes.”
“Good for you, David! May you succeed in unearthing the brutal
villain! You have carte-blanche to draw on the house for any
expense that your search may entail. Go ahead! I will stand by you!”
cried John Dunlap enthusiastically.
 XVIII.
“The abysmal depth of degradation has now been reached; I no
longer, even in my moments of affected refinement, attempt to
conceal the fact from myself, the gauzy veil of acquisition no longer
deceives even me, it long since failed to deceive others.”
What evil genii of metamorphosis had transformed the debonair
Walter Burton into the wretched, slovenly, brutalized being who,
grunting, gave utterance to such sentiments, while stretched, in
unkempt abandonment, on a disordered couch in the center of the
unswept and neglected music-room in the ‘Eyrie’ early on this March
morning?
Even the linen of the once fastidious model of masculine
cleanliness was soiled, and the delights of the bath seemed quite
unknown to the heavy-eyed, listless lounger on the couch.
“I have abandoned useless effort to rehabilitate myself in the
misfit garments of a civilization and culture for which the
configuration of my mental structure, by nature, renders me
unsuited. My child indicated the off-springs natural to me. My
emotion and actions in the forest of Haiti gave evidence of the
degree of the pure spirit of religion to be found in my inmost soul,
and my conduct, following natural inclinations, since my return to
Boston, has demonstrated how little control civilization, morality, or
pity have over my inherent savage nature.”
The man seemed in a peculiar way to derive some satisfaction
from rehearsing the story of his hopeless condition, and in the fact
that he had reached the limit of descent.
“I should have fled to the mountains of Haiti, had I not been led
to fight against my own kinsmen. For the moment I was blinded by
the thread-bare thought that I was of the white instead of black
race, and when I had time to free my mind from that old misleading
idea, my hands were stained with the blood of my own race. I was
obliged to leave Haiti or suffer the fate that ever overtakes a traitor
to his race.”
“There is no hope of the restoration of my wife’s mental faculties,
and even should there be that is all the more reason for my fleeing
from Boston and forever disappearing, I retain enough of the
borrowed refinement of the whites in my recollection to know that
as I am now I should be loathesome to her.”
“Here, I must shun the sight of those who know me, realizing that
I can no longer appear in the assumed character that I formerly did.
Here, I skulk the streets at night in the apparel of a tramp seeking
gratification of proclivities that are natural to me.”
“I know that I must leave this city and country as quickly as
possible. The long repressed desires natural to me break forth with a
fury that renders me oblivious to consequences and my own safety.
Repression by civilization and culture foreign to a race but serves to
increase the violence of the outburst when the barrier once is
broken.”
“I will go to the office today, secure some private documents and
notify Mr. Dunlap that I desire to withdraw at once from the firm of
J. Dunlap. I will nerve myself for one more act in the farce. I will don
the costume in which I paraded the stage so long for one more
occasion.”
Burton arose slowly from his recumbent position as if reluctant to
resume even for a day a character that had become tiresome and
obnoxious to his negro nature.

David Chapman had on several occasions made suggestions to the

head of the Police Department in Boston that had resulted in the
detection and apprehension of elusive criminals. Unlike many
professional detectives, Chief O’Brien welcomed the aid of amateurs
and listened respectfully to theories, sometimes ridiculous, but
occasionally suggestive of the correct solution of an apparently
incomprehensible crime.
The deductive method of solving the problem of a mysterious
crime employed by Chapman was not alone interesting to the Chief
of Detectives, but appeared wonderful in the correctness of the
conclusions obtained. He therefore gave eager attention to what
Chapman communicated to him while seated in the Chief’s private
office on the evening of the day that Burton visited the office of J.
Dunlap to secure his private correspondence and documents.
“In the first place, Chief, as soon as I learned the details of this
Malloy crime, I decided that the perpetrator of it was of the negro
race,” said Chapman, methodically arranging a number of slips of
paper on the Chief’s desk, at which he sat confronting O’Brien on the
opposite side.
“How did you arrive at that decision?” said the detective.
“Well, as you are aware, for you laughed at me often enough
when you ran across me with my black associates, I ‘slummed’
among the negroes for months to gain some knowledge of the negro
nature”.
“Yes, I know that and often wondered at your persistent
prosecution of such a disagreeable undertaking,” said O’Brien.
“I learned in that investigation that beneath the surface of
careless, thoughtless gaiety and good nature there lies a
tremendous amount of cruelty and brutal savagery in the negro
nature; that dire results have been caused by a misconception of the
negro character on this point to those associated with them; that
while sensual satiety produces lassitude in other races, in the negro
race it engenders a lust for blood that almost invariably results in the
murder of the victim of a brutal attack. I checked the correctness of
my conclusions by an examination of all obtainable records and
completely verified the accuracy of my deduction.”
“That had not occurred to me before,” said the Chief frankly; “now
that you mention it, I think from the record of that crime, as it
recurs to me at this moment, that your statement is true.”
“The next step was to look for the particular individual of the
negro race who could fit in with the trifling evidence in your
possession, which you so readily submitted to me. From the mold
taken by your men of the criminal’s foot-prints it is evident that his
feet were small and clad in expensive shoes. In the shape of the
imprints I find corroboration of my premise that the author of the
crime was of the negro race. The fragment of finger nail embedded
in the girl’s throat, under a microscope reveals the fact that, while
the nail was not free from dirt, it had recently been under the
manipulation of a manicure and was not of thick, coarse grain like a
manual laborer’s nails,” said the amateur detective glancing at his
notes.
“Yes, I agree in all that, Mr. Chapman. Go ahead; what follows?”
remarked O’Brien.
“We have then a negro, but one not engaged in the usual
employment of the negro residents in Boston, to look for; next you
found clutched in the fingers of the dead girl two threads of
brownish color and coarse material, together with a fragment of
paper like a part of an envelope on which was written a few notes of
music.”
“Yes, and I defy the devil to make anything result from such
infinitesimal particles of evidence,” exclaimed the professional
detective.
“Well, I’m not the devil.” said Chapman, quietly proceeding to
recapitulate the process adopted by him.
“From the few notes—you know that I am something of a
musician—I began, poco a poco, as they say in music, to reconstruct
the tune of which the few notes were a part. As I proceeded, going
over the notes time and again on my violoncello, I became
convinced that I had heard that wild tune before, and am now able
to say where and when.”
 “Wonderful, perfectly wonderful if you can, Chapman,” cried the
thoroughly interested Chief.
“What next?” O’Brien asked, impatient at the calmness of the man
on the opposite side of the desk.
“To-day I saw the finger that the fragment of nail found in the
girl’s neck would fit, and one finger-nail had been broken and was
gone,” continued Chapman, by great effort restraining the evidence
of the exultation that he felt.
“Where, man, where? And whose was the hand?” gasped O’Brien.
“Wait a moment! Upon reflection I realized that the only part of a
man’s apparel likely to give way in a desperate struggle would be a
coat pocket; that the hand of the girl had grasped the edge of the
pocket and in so doing had closed upon an old envelope in the
pocket, which was torn and remained in her hand with a couple of
threads from the cloth of the coat when the murderer finally
wrenched the coat out of her lifeless fingers.”
“Quite likely,” exclaimed the Chief impatiently.
“But hurry along, man,” urged the officer.
“This afternoon I examined under the most powerful microscope
procurable in Boston the threads that your assistant has in safe
keeping. I recognized the color and material of which those threads
are made. I know the coat whence the threads came, and the owner
of the coat,” declared Chapman emphatically.
“His name,” almost yelled the astonished detective.
“David Chapman,” was the cool and triumphant reply.
The Chief glared at the exultant amateur with wonder, in which a
doubt of the man’s sanity was mingled.
“It is the coat of the suit I wore while ‘slumming’ in my
investigations concerning the negro race. It has hung in my private
closet in the office until some time within the last two months, when
it was abstracted by some one having keys to the private offices of
J. Dunlap. Mr. Dunlap, Walter Burton and I alone possess such keys.
Burton, like me, is tall and slim, the suit will fit him; Burton is of the
negro race; I heard Burton play the tune of which the few notes are
part when I went to his house on the only occasion that I ever
visited the ‘Eyrie;’ Burton’s shoes—I tried an old one today which
was left at the office some months ago—exactly fit the tracks left by
the murderer. Burton having no suit that he could wear as a disguise
while rambling the streets in search of adventure, found and
appropriated my old ‘slumming’ suit. You will find that suit, blood-
stained, the coat pocket torn, now hidden somewhere in the ‘Eyrie’ if
it be not destroyed. Walter Burton is guilty of the Malloy assault and
murder!” Chapman had risen from his chair, his face was aflame with
vindictiveness and passion, his small eyes blazing with satisfied
hatred as he almost yelled, in his excitement, the denunciation of
Burton.
“Great God! man, it can’t be,” gasped the Chief of Detectives,
saying as he regained his breath,
“Burton and the Dunlaps are not people to make mistakes with in
such a horrible case as this.”
“Burton has withdrawn from our firm. He has provided himself
with a large sum of currency. He is leaving the country. Tomorrow
night he dines with Mr. Dunlap to complete the arrangements for the
severance of his relations with the house of J. Dunlap. Captain Jack
Dunlap will dine with Mr. Dunlap on that occasion, and I shall be
there to draw up any papers required. The coast will be clear at the
‘Eyrie;’ go there upon the pretext of arresting Victor, Burton’s valet,
on the charge of larceny; search throughout the premises; if you
find the garments, and the coat is in the condition I describe, come
at once to the Dunlap mansion and arrest the murderer, or it will be
too late, the bird will have flown.” The veins in Chapman’s brow and
neck were fairly bursting through the skin, so intense were the
passion and vehemence of the man who, straining forward, shouted
out directions to the detective.
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