A bio-inspired continuum robot for out-pipe climbing and confined space navigating

Abstract

Pipe robots are being developed to climb the areas that are hard to reach for human beings. Generally, there are few out-pipe robots that can both climb among pipes and pass through confined space. To this end, we propose a solution based on a continuum robot with several compliant mechanisms. This robot can imitate the locomotion principles of both caterpillars and inch-worms. The kinematics of the two-segment continuum robot is analyzed. Simulations including task space motion and confined space navigating are performed using a flexible multi-body dynamics method are performed for further discussion. Lastly, we showcase primary experiments of our proposed continuum robot for narrow gap exploration.