A Geometrically Exact Model for Externally Loaded Concentric-Tube Continuum Robots

By D. C. Rucker, Bryan A. Jones, Robert J. Webster III. IEEE Transactions on robotics, 2010

461 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Continuum robots, which are composed of multiple concentric, precurved elastic tubes, can provide dexterity at diameters equivalent to standard surgical needles. Recent mechanics-based models of these “active cannulas” are able to accurately describe the curve of the robot in free space, given the preformed tube curves and the linear and angular positions of the tube bases. However, in practical applications, where the active cannula must interact with its environment or apply controlled forces, a model that accounts for deformation under external loading is required. In this paper, we apply geometrically exact rod theory to produce a forward kinematic model that accurately describes large deflections due to a general collection of externally applied point and/or distributed wrench loads. This model accommodates arbitrarily many tubes, with each having a general preshaped curve. It also describes the independent torsional deformation of the individual tubes. Experimental results are provided for both point and distributed loads. Average tip error under load was 2.91 mm (1.5% - 3% of total robot length), which is similar to the accuracy of existing free-space models.

Subfields: Biomedical Engineering, Control and Systems Engineering, Mechanical Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fa6d407c5cf7bc0b68ada340bdeb921b198c43ce

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In Biomedical Engineering

In Control and Systems Engineering

In Mechanical Engineering

Citations in the corpus

Continuum Robots for Medical Applications: A Survey (2015, background): “…guidewire and catheter insertions [129], magnetically actuated catheters [130], concentric-tube robots in free space [60] and with external loads [64], [131], externally loaded tendon-driven catheter robots with general tendon routing paths [98], [132], and force sensing and stiffness control…”
Design and Kinematic Modeling of Constant Curvature Continuum Robots: A Review (2010, methodology): “…to create increasingly sophisticated models of continuum robots (see, e.g., Gravagne et al. (2003), Camarillo et al. (2008), Webster et al. (2009), Rucker et al. (2010a), Dupont et al. (2010), and Trivedi et al. (2008a)), and the elucidation of various parsimonious modeling simplifications,…”
Statics and Dynamics of Continuum Robots With General Tendon Routing and External Loading (2011, background): “Recent models that account for both have been derived for continuum robots with pneumatic actuation [6], [7], multiple flexible push-pull rods [8], [9], and a backbone that consists of concentric, precurved tubes [10].”
Dynamic Model of a Multibending Soft Robot Arm Driven by Cables (2014, background): “The state of the art on Cosserat geometrically exact models for soft robot arms has been limited so far to static analysis [17], [19], [22], [23] or to the theoretical presentation of dynamic cases, without performing simulations or experimental comparisons [16], [18], [20] and without considering e”