ET Arm: Highly Compliant Elephant-Trunk Continuum Manipulator

Zhao

2020

Preprint

Continuum manipulators have advantages in narrow space detections and operations than the rigid-body robots. In this paper, we novel designed a continuum manipulator with contractible/extensive abilities that give the manipulator more agile and flexible motion than those without these. The robotic system is composed of the continuum deforming body, driving tendons, and a mechanism. To enhance the displacement accuracy of the tendons and compact the package, the mechanism was designed as a controlled winding roller with rotation and translation motion. A prototype of the robotic system was made to evaluate the motion ability of the proposed design.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel design of a contractible, tubular continuum manipulator

Xing

Zhao

2020

Preprint

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A novel design of a contractible, tubular continuum manipulator

Xing

Zhao

2020

Preprint

Continuum manipulators have advantages in narrow space detections and operations than the rigid-body robots. In this paper, we novel designed a continuum manipulator with contractible/extensive abilities that give the manipulator bigger workspace, more agile and flexible motion than those without these. The robotic system is composed of the continuum deforming body, driving tendons, and a actuating mechanism. A prototype of the robotic system was made to evaluate the motion ability of the proposed design.

“…While the compliant body of a continuum robot can potentially have infinite degrees-of-freedom (DOF), its limited number of actuators makes this nominal advantage less relevant. A continuum manipulator segment that can achieve a controllable constant curvature can only reach a set of points located on a curved surface in 3-dimensional space, each with only a single orientation [4], [5]. This workspace is often unfavorable for practical applications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Dexterous Tip-extending Robot with Variable-length Shape-locking

Zhang

Haggerty

et al. 2020

Preprint

Soft, tip-extending "vine" robots offer a unique mode of inspection and manipulation in highly constrained environments. For practicality, it is desirable that the distal end of the robot can be manipulated freely, while the body remains stationary. However, in previous vine robots, either the shape of the body was fixed after growth with no ability to manipulate the distal end, or the whole body moved together with the tip. Here, we present a concept for shape-locking that enables a vine robot to move only its distal tip, while the body is locked in place. This is achieved using two inextensible, pressurized, tip-extending, chambers that "grow" along the sides of the robot body, preserving curvature in the section where they have been deployed. The length of the locked and free sections can be varied by controlling the extension and retraction of these chambers. We present models describing this shapelocking mechanism and workspace of the robot in both free and constrained environments. We experimentally validate these models, showing an increased dexterous workspace compared to previous vine robots. Our shape-locking concept allows improved performance for vine robots, advancing the field of soft robotics for inspection and manipulation in highly constrained environments.