Task-specific Design of Tubular Continuum Robots for Surgical Applications
Verl, A; Albu-Schäffer, A; Brock, O; Raatz, A (Ed.) -- Soft Robotics - From Theory to Applications, pp. 220–230, Springer, ISBN -- 978-3-662-44505-1., 2015
Abstract
Tubular continuum robots are the smallest among continuum robots. They are composed of multiple, precurved, superelastic tubes. The design space for tubular continuum robots is infinite: each one of the component tubes can be individually parameterized in terms of its length, segmental curvatures, diameter, and material properties. Ad-hoc selection of those parameters is extremely challenging, since the elastic coupling of concentrically arranged and actuated tubes is hard to predict with common sense, especially under the presence of workspace constraints. In this chapter, an overview of the design process is given and the current state of the art in task-specific design of tubular continuum robots is reviewed.