Workspace analysis of tendon-driven continuum robots based on mechanical interference identification

Cao, Kun; Kang, Rongjie; Branson, David; Geng, Shineng; Song, Zhibin; Dai, Jian S.

Abstract

Continuum robots have excited increasing attention and efforts from the robotic community due to their high dexterity and safety. This paper proposes a design for a type of multimodule continuum robot equipped with an elastic backbone structure and tendon-driven actuation system. The kinematic model of the robot is formulated where the maximum bending angle of a module is obtained by identifying the interference between the backbone structure and the tendons. A superposition method is then used to determine the configuration space of the robotic module. Finally, an approximation method is presented to estimate the workspace of the tendon-driven continuum robot that reduces the computational complexity in comparison with the previously used scanning method. Experiments are provided to validate the proposed methods.

Citation

Cao, K., Kang, R., Branson, D., Geng, S., Song, Z., & Dai, J. S. (2017). Workspace analysis of tendon-driven continuum robots based on mechanical interference identification. Journal of Mechanical Design, 139(6), Article 062303. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4036395

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 16, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Apr 25, 2017
• Publication Date: Apr 25, 2017
• Deposit Date: Sep 12, 2018
• Print ISSN: 1050-0472
• Electronic ISSN: 1528-9001
• Publisher: American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 139
• Issue: 6
• Article Number: 062303
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4036395
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1121550
• Publisher URL: http://mechanicaldesign.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/article.aspx?articleid=2618333
• Related Public URLs: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85018167272&doi=10.1115%2f1.4036395&partnerID=40&md5=d9135bff6942dc2aee268123fad421d0