Compound continuum manipulator for surgery: Efficient static‐based kinematics

Abstract

BackgroundThe combination of various continuum manipulators is a potential solution to break the bottleneck of continuum manipulators. However, continuum manipulators dissatisfy the constant curvature assumption due to the influence of joints.MethodsIn this paper, a mechanics‐based kinematic model of the compound continuum manipulator is proposed, which indicates that the curvature is non‐constant. The static model of the manipulator is established, and the relationship of the bending angles is obtained. An efficient static‐based Inverse Kinematic Algorithm using Polynomial Curve (IKAPC) of the manipulator is proposed. The polynomial curve is used to fit the end trajectory of the first manipulator.ResultsThe simulation results show that the IKAPC is 354 times faster than the Levenberg‐Marquardt algorithm. The experimental results show that the mechanics‐based model improves the position accuracy by 3.75 times over the constant curvature method.ConclusionThis paper is critical for solving the inverse kinematics of the compound continuum manipulator.