Abstract
The passive, mechanical adaptation of slender, deformable robots to their environment, whether the robot be made of hard materials or soft ones, makes them desirable as tools for medical procedures. Their reduced physical compliance can provide a form of embodied intelligence that allows the natural dynamics of interaction between the robot and its environment to guide the evolution of the combined robot-environment system. To design these systems, the problems of analysis, design optimization, control, and motion planning remain of great importance because, in general, the advantages afforded by increased mechanical compliance must be balanced against penalties such as slower dynamics, increased difficulty in the design of control systems, and greater kinematic uncertainty. The models that form the basis of these problems should be reasonably accurate yet not prohibitively expensive to formulate and solve. In this article, the state-of-the-art modeling techniques for continuum robots are reviewed and cast in a common language. Classical theories of mechanics are used to outline formal guidelines for the selection of appropriate degrees of freedom in models of continuum robots, both in terms of number and of quality, for geometrically nonlinear models built from the general family of one-dimensional rod models of continuum mechanics. Consideration is also given to the variety of actuators found in existing designs, the types of interaction that occur between continuum robots and their biomedical environments, the imposition of constraints on degrees of freedom, and to the numerical solution of the family of models under study. Finally, some open problems of modeling are discussed and future challenges are identified.
Highlights
Continuum robots use material deformation to move instead of joints
Biomedical applications have been a great motivator in the development of a wide variety of continuum and soft robots, ranging from surgery to therapy and other applications involving physical human-robot interaction
The same is true for an intravascular catheter. It is the particular combination of geometry and just the right amount of mechanical “softness” that facilitates the completion of the task
Summary
Continuum robots use material deformation to move instead of joints. They may offer a technological solution to some of the difficult challenges of locomotion, perception, and manipulation found in a variety of unstructured and uncertain environments (Robinson and Davies, 1999). The great recent interest in these design paradigms stems from the observation that success in whatever form it is needed may be achieved without having complete control over the motion of a robot or its forces of interaction with the environment. It is the particular combination of geometry and just the right amount of mechanical “softness” that facilitates the completion of the task Beyond this snake-in-a-pipe approach to navigation, recent research has argued that physical compliance is advantageous in grasping, underwater swimming, robustness to collision, and locomotion on soft terrains where low ground pressure is required.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
