Continuum robots for application in medicine are of high interest in recent research. However, as most systems in literature show complex and large actuator units, setting up such a system can be time consuming, costly and results in a bulky system, unsuitable for the spatial requirements given in surgical scenarios. In this work, a compact, efficient continuum robotic system is presented. A pair of two antagonistic tendons is controlled by a single servo motor instead of single tendon actuation. This way, the actuator footprint is maintained at a minimum size and the method results in a simpler setup. The resulting 260 mm long robot with 9.9 mm diameter achieves a repeatability with an error of maximum 1.8 % of its length. In future work, this work serves as a basis for integration of various sensing modalities in continuum robots and evaluation of control algorithms.
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