Kinematics of an infinitely flexible robot arm

Abstract

Abstract This article describes a research effort to develop a command and control algorithm for a proposed flexible robot arm. This robot arm, unlike previous arms, is assumed to be extremely flexible, possessing a large number of degrees of freedom and functioning as a “tentacle.” Algorithms for commanding smooth motion of this arm in the presence of obstacles are developed, including both forward and inverse kinematics. The approach is based on the use of Catmull‐Rom splines and local radius of curvature commands to discrete actuators along the arm's length. Several example trajectories are presented and explained. According to the proposed method, a spline curve algorithm is successfully applied for the configuration of the flexible robot and the accuracy and the collision avoidability of the flexible arm are verified through simulation.