“Hyper-redundant” robots have a very large or infinite degree of kinematic redundancy. This paper develops new methods for determining “optimal” hyper-redundant manipulator configurations based on a continuum formulation of kinematics. This formulation uses a backbone curve model to capture the robot’s essential macroscopic geometric features. The calculus of variations is used to develop diffe...

The science of rehabilitation shows that repeated movements of human limbs can help the patient regain function in the injured limb. There are three types of mechanical systems used for movement rehabilitation: robots, cable-driven manipulators, and exoskeletons. Industrial robots can be used because they provide a three-dimensional workspace with a wide range of flexibility to execute differen...

Underactuated Cable-Driven Parallel Robots (CDPR) employ a number of cables smaller than the degrees freedom (DoFs) end-effector (EE) that they control. As consequence, EE is underconstrained and preserves some freedoms even when all actuators are locked, which may lead to undesirable oscillations. This paper proposes methodology for computation natural oscillation frequencies, whose knowledge ...