Kinematic Flexibility Analysis of a Wire-Driven Continuum Robot

Abstract

Inspired by elephant trunks, tentacles and worms in nature, continuum robots are suitable for manipulation in narrow, complex and unconstructed environments with their intrinsic compliance. Regarding to the design of such robots, one of the key points is to improve the flexibility in its workspace. Therefore, in this paper, the kinematic flexibility of a two-joint wire-driven continuum robot is analyzed by introducing a global flexibility index. Additionally, a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is utilized to obtain the optimal length of each joint through maximizing the presented global flexibility index. Simulations and experimental results show that the flexibility and the motion accuracy of the proposed robot are improved.