Design Considerations and Redundancy Resolution for Variable Geometry Continuum Robots. Abah, C., Orekhov, A. L., & Simaan, N. In 2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pages 767–774, May, 2018.
doi  abstract   bibtex   
Current multi-backbone continuum robots are limited to a constant cross-sectional diameter. This paper proposes a design alternative that overcomes this limitation. The ability to change the diameter of a continuum robot expands the repertoire of kinematic redundancy and enables kinematic parameter adaptation to optimize performance. A continuum robot design based on the angulated scissor mechanism is presented along with its position analysis. An exploration of admissible design parameter values for a given continuum robot segment with a desired maximum curvature while maintaining an open bore along its center is also carried out. A design presenting how this mechanism can be incorporated into a continuum robot is shown and a strategy for minimizing joint forces and avoiding joint limits is formulated as a gradient descent redundancy resolution problem in a simulation case study. The simulation results show that varying the diameter can significantly reduce joint forces while preserving the workspace and avoiding joint limits. This work is a first step towards continuum robots with situational awareness that will use their sensing capabilities to adapt their structure in order to optimize task execution performance.
@inproceedings{abah_design_2018,
	title = {Design {Considerations} and {Redundancy} {Resolution} for {Variable} {Geometry} {Continuum} {Robots}},
	doi = {10.1109/ICRA.2018.8460722},
	abstract = {Current multi-backbone continuum robots are limited to a constant cross-sectional diameter. This paper proposes a design alternative that overcomes this limitation. The ability to change the diameter of a continuum robot expands the repertoire of kinematic redundancy and enables kinematic parameter adaptation to optimize performance. A continuum robot design based on the angulated scissor mechanism is presented along with its position analysis. An exploration of admissible design parameter values for a given continuum robot segment with a desired maximum curvature while maintaining an open bore along its center is also carried out. A design presenting how this mechanism can be incorporated into a continuum robot is shown and a strategy for minimizing joint forces and avoiding joint limits is formulated as a gradient descent redundancy resolution problem in a simulation case study. The simulation results show that varying the diameter can significantly reduce joint forces while preserving the workspace and avoiding joint limits. This work is a first step towards continuum robots with situational awareness that will use their sensing capabilities to adapt their structure in order to optimize task execution performance.},
	booktitle = {2018 {IEEE} {International} {Conference} on {Robotics} and {Automation} ({ICRA})},
	author = {Abah, C. and Orekhov, A. L. and Simaan, N.},
	month = may,
	year = {2018},
	keywords = {Continuum robots, Couplings, Elbow, Fasteners, Jacobian matrices, Kinematics, Redundancy, Robot sensing systems, admissible design parameter values, angulated scissor mechanism, continuum robot design, continuum robot segment, design alternative, gradient descent redundancy resolution problem, joint forces, joint limits, kinematic parameter adaptation, kinematic redundancy, kinematics, manipulator kinematics, mobile robots, multibackbone continuum robots, redundancy, redundant manipulators, situational awareness, task execution performance, variable geometry continuum, variable geometry robots},
	pages = {767--774}
}

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