The First Interlaced Continuum Robot, Devised to Intrinsically Follow the Leader.

ABSTRACT: Flexible probes that are safely deployed to hard-to-reach targets while avoiding critical structures are strategic in several high-impact application fields, including the biomedical sector and the sector of inspections at large. A critical problem for these tools is the best approach for deploying an entire tool body, not only its tip, on a sought trajectory. A probe that achieves this deployment is considered to follow the leader (or to achieve follow-the-leader deployment) because its body sections follow the track traced by its tip. Follow-the-leader deployment through cavities is complicated due to a lack of external supports. Currently, no definitive implementation for a probe that is intrinsically able to follow the leader, i.e., without relying on external supports, has been achiev

SUBMITTER: Kang B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4767230 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature