Stability Analysis of Rod-Driven Continuum Robots Based on Finite Element Models to Avoid Buckling

Abstract

Continuum robots driven by rods have intrinsic compliance while keeping relatively high motion precision, thus they have promising potential to various fields where compliant actuation and manipulation are required. However, the use of slender rods in the robot structure may lead to buckling problem. In this paper, finite element models were established to analyze the stability of a type of rod-driven continuum robot. Simulations were conducted to find the critical and optimal slenderness ratio used to direct the design of such kind of robots. A prototype was built based on the optimal slenderness ratio and the experimental results proved the accuracy and reliability of the finite element models.