This paper focuses on a class of robot manipulators termed “continuum” robots—robots that exhibit behavior similar to tentacles, trunks, and snakes. In previous work, we studied details of the mechanical design, kinematics, path-planning and small-deflection dynamics for continuum robots such as the Clemson “Tentacle Manipulator.” In this paper, we discuss the dynamics of a planar continuum bac...

This paper focuses on a class of robot manipulators termed “continuum” robots — robots that exhibit behavior similar to tentacles, trunks, and snakes. In previous work, we studied details of the mechanical design, kinematics, path-planning and small-deßection dynamics for continuum robots such as the Clemson “Tentacle Manipulator.” In this work, we discuss the dynamics of a planar continuum bac...

Bioinspired Continuum Robots In article number 2201616, Ji Liu, Haijun Peng, Jianing Wu, and co-workers present a three-segment continuum robot constructed by class-3 tensegrity structure, inspired the mechanism of an elephant trunk for regulating local stiffness. It relies on stiffness tunable material to achieve robotic programmable characteristics. This study may provide foundation potential...

Control of surgical continuum robot manipulators and steerable needles requires accurate real-time sensing of tip position and/or shaft shape. Medical image feedback provides the most straightforward and widely available method of measuring device and clinical target positions and shapes during insertion or tissue manipulation. In this paper we present a method for automatic robot/needle curve ...

Over the past several years, there has been a rapidly expanding interest in the study and construction of a new class of robot manipulators which utilize high degree of freedom, or continuous, backbone structures. In this paper, we consider some basic properties of these "continuum'' or "hyperredundant'' robots. We base our analysis around remotely-driven, tendon-actuated manipulators such as t...

The continuum field theoretic method has become the method of choice for multiscale structure-formation modeling of very different phase transformations in the past decade. One of the challenges in application of the method to transformations in real materials is to obtain the mesoscopic parameters, which characterize the thermodynamic system of interest. Significant progress has been made in t...

There is a growing need for robots that can not only function in close proximity to human beings but also physically interact with them safely. We believe inherent safety is extremely important for robots in human environments. In this paper, we identify key design paradigms for robots that can safely perform physical human robot interaction (pHRI). We believe soft robots can incorporate these ...

Robotic cooperative tasks impose, in many cases, a grasping action. Grasping by coiling it is one of the most versatile action. The present article propose a frequency stability criterion based on the Kahman – Yakubovich – Popov Lemma for the hyper-redundant arms with continuum element that performs the grasping function by coiling. Dynamics of the biomimetical robot during non-contact and cont...

I n this work, we consider a class of robotic manipulators generally termed “hyper-redundant”. Spec<fically, we seek to examine some 0.f the kinematic properties of ‘%ontinuum” hyper-redundant robots. Unlike the case with rigidlink’robots, there is n o commonly accepted formula ,for describing continuum robot kinematics. Although these manipulators are continuously flexible, they are actuated w...

Objectives The purpose of this study is to experimentally evaluate the use of concentric tube continuum robots in endonasal skull base tumor removal. This new type of surgical robot offers many advantages over existing straight and rigid surgical tools including added dexterity, the ability to scale movements, and the ability to rotate the end effector while leaving the robot fixed in space. In...