Path planning for multisection continuum arms

Abstract

Continuum arms have interesting features useful for navigation in unstructured environments such as minimally invasive surgeries and inspection tasks. However, planning motions to avoid obstacles for these arms is challenging due to their complex kinematics. In this paper a path planning and obstacle avoidance algorithm for multisection continuum arms in dynamic environments is presented. This work is potentially applicable to surgical procedures to navigate near vital organs and reach surgical targets without injuring surrounding tissues. On the macro scale it can snake a continuum arm through constrained spaces such as inside of tubes for search and rescue purposes. Simulation results are presented for obstacle avoidance in static and dynamic environments. The algorithm utilizes a mode shape function based kinematic model of continuum arms and yields accurate solutions efficiently. This approach can be easily extended for other configurations of continuum arms.