FAS-A Fully Actuated Segment for Tendon-Driven Continuum Robots.

ABSTRACT: We propose a segment design that combines two distinct characteristics of tendon-driven continuum robots, i.e. variable length and non-straight tendon routing, into a single segment by enabling rotation of its backbone. As a result, this segment can vary its helical tendon routing and has four degrees-of-freedom, while maintaining a small-scale design with an overall outer diameter of 7 mm thanks to an extrinsic actuation principle. In simulation and on prototypes, we observe improved motion capabilities, as evidenced by position redundancy and follow-the-leader deployment along spatially tortuous paths. To demonstrate the latter on a physical prototype, a simple, yet effective area-based error measure for follow-the-leader deployment is proposed to evaluate the performance. Furthermore, w

SUBMITTER: Grassmann RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9090173 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature