METABot - Magnetic Extensible Tendon Actuated Continuum Robot
DGR Days (German Society of Robotics), 2016
Abstract
Continuum manipulators possess the ability tomove along nonlinear paths and avoid obstacles in confinedenvironments. However, existing designs have some inherentrestrictions: limited range of curvatures or fixed segmentlengths. Hence, to achieve motion along a tortuous path ina confined environment in a follow-the-leader manner requiresthoughtful a priori design parameter selection. As a result,follow-the-leader motion is only achievable for a limited numberof cases. Here, we present a novel miniaturized (7 mm diameter)tendon-driven manipulator design with extensible segments(METABot) enabling follow-the-leader movement.