| Continuum robots are the biologically inspired robots that mimic the behaviors of mammalian tongues, elephant trunks, and octopus arms.;The drawbacks of two existing designs are examined and a new mechanical design that uses a single latex rubber tube as the central member is proposed, providing a design that is both simple and robust. Next, a novel verification procedure is applied to examine the validity of the proposed model in two different domains of applicability. A two-level electrical control scheme enables rapid prototyping and can be used to control the continuum robot remotely. Next, a new geometrical approach to solve inverse kinematics for continuum type robot manipulators is introduced. Given the tip of a three section robot, a complete inverse kinematics solution is obtained. Finally, the techniques involved in visualization of AirOctor/OctArm in 3D space in real-time are discussed. The algorithm has been tested with several system topologies. |
