In collaboration with the Institute of Mechatronic Systems (IMES) at the Leibniz University in Hannover, Germany, the CRL has successfully published a paper in the Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics from The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. This research began in 2018 and has been funded by the German Research Foundation.

To get to this point, Jessica Burgner-Kahrs, Georg Böttcher, and Sven Lilge of the CRL worked with Kathrin Nülle and Svenja Spindeldreier from the IMES. They used kinematics models to analyze planar parallel continuum robots (a robot consisting of several continuum robots connected to a rigid plane).

Through this research, they were able to evaluate several kinematic properties of the robot including its manipulability and singularities (limiting points where the robot loses regular motion or moves in an unstable manner) that these types of robots possess.

The designs of the continuous structures in these robots where compared with those of conventional planar robotics models. It was found that the continuum variant performed as well as if not better than their conventional counterparts.

This research further makes the case for continuum robots and highlights its inherent capabilities that conventional robots lack, such as their compliant bodies perfectly suitable for work in fragile environments and around people.

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