The field of continuum robotics is rapidly developing. The development of new kinematic structures, locomotion principles and control strategies is driving the development of new types of sensors and sensing methodologies. The sensing in continuum ro...
Continuum robots have often been compared with rigid-link designs through conventional performance metrics (e.g., precision and Jacobian-based indicators). However, these metrics were developed to suit rigid-link robots and are tuned to capture speci...
This paper comprehensively reviews the latest advances in hydrogel-based continuum soft robots. Hydrogels exhibit exceptional flexibility and adaptability compared to traditional robots reliant on rigid structures, making them ideal as biomimetic rob...
Aerial manipulators have seen a rapid uptake for multiple applications, including inspection tasks and aerial robot–human interaction in building and construction. Whilst single degree of freedom (DoF) and multiple DoF rigid link manipulators (...
In situ repair and maintenance of high-value industrial equipment is critical if they are to maintain the ability to continue vital operations. Conventional single-arm continuum robots have been proven numerous times to be successful tools for use in...
This article explores the challenges of continuum and magnetic soft robotics for medical applications, extending from model development to an interdisciplinary perspective. First, we established a unified model framework based on algebra and geometry...
Traditional rigid robot application in the medical field is limited due to the limited degrees of freedom caused by their material and structure. Inspired by trunk, tentacles, and snakes, continuum robot (CR) could traverse confined space, manipulate...
In addition to high compliance to unstructured environments, soft robots can be further improved to gain the advantages of rigid robots by increasing stiffness. Indeed, realizing the adjustable stiffness of soft continuum robots can provide safer int...
A continuum robot is a unique type of robots which move because of the elastic deformation of their bodies. The kinematics of such robots is typically described using constant curvature assumption. Such an assumption, however, does not completely des...
The compound continuum robot employs both concentric tube components and cable-driven continuum components to achieve its complex motions. Nevertheless, the interaction between these components causes coupling, which inevitably leads to reduced accur...
Reinforcement learning (RL) is explored for motor control of a novel pneumatic-driven soft robot modeled after continuum media with a varying density. This model complies with closed-form Lagrangian dynamics, which fulfills the fundamental structural...
Compliant continuum robots (CCRs) have slender and elastic bodies. Compared with a traditional serial robot, they have more degrees of freedom and can deform their flexible bodies to go through a constrained environment. In this paper, we classify CC...
Soft continuum robots and manipulators (SCRaMs) are elongated structures that can be used in many applications, such as exploration, inspection, and minimally invasive surgery. Multi-segment SCRaMs employ numerous actuators to perform their tasks. Th...
Kinematic modeling is essential for planning and controlling continuum robot motion. The traditional Denavit Hartenberg (DH) model involves complex matrix multiplication operations, resulting in computationally intensive inverse solutions and traject...
Rigid robots have found wide-ranging applications in manufacturing automation, owing to their high loading capacity, high speed, and high precision. Nevertheless, these robots typically feature joint-based drive mechanisms, possessing limited degrees...
Continuum robots are increasingly used in medical applications and the master–slave-based architectures are still the most important mode of operation in human–machine interaction. However, the existing master control devices are not full...
Secure and reliable active debris removal methods are crucial for maintaining the stability of the space environment. Continuum robots, with their hyper-redundant degrees of freedom, offer the ability to capture targets of varying sizes and shapes th...
Traditional tendon-driven continuum robot (TDCR) models based on Cosserat rod theory often assume that tendon tension is a continuous wrench along the backbone. However, this assumption overlooks critical factors, including the discrete arrangement o...
The continuum robot is a new type of bionic robot which is widely used in the medical field. However, the current structure of the continuum robot limits its application in the field of minimally invasive surgery. In this paper, a bio-inspired compou...
This paper presents the design, kinematics, and development of a tendon-driven continuum robot for surgical applications. The continuum robot has a flexible and adaptable construction that imitates the movements of natural organisms. The robot’...
Continuum robots have good adaptability in unstructured and complex environments. However, affected by their inherent nature of flexibility and slender structure, there are challenges in high-precision motion and load. Thus, stiffness adjustment for...
Continuum robots are increasingly being used in industrial and medical applications due to their high number of degrees of freedom (DoF), large workspace and their ability to operate dexterously. However, the positional accuracy of conventional conti...
Inspired by the musculoskeletal structure of snakes, this study proposes a cable-driven continuum robotic system, comprising a dual-segment continuum arm and a linear feeding module. The continuum arm provides four joint degrees of freedom through co...
Background: The application of continuum manipulators as assistive robots is discussed and tested through the use of Bendy ARM, a simple manually teleoperated tendon driven continuum manipulator prototype. Methods: Two rounds of user testing were per...
Continuum robots, possessing great flexibility, can accomplish tasks in complex work scenes, regarded as an important direction in robotics. However, the current continuum robots are not satisfying enough in terms of fabrication and maintenance, and...
Inspired by the characteristics of living organisms with soft bodies and flexibility, continuum robots, which bend their robotic bodies and adapt to different shapes, have been widely introduced. Such robots can be used as manipulators to handle obje...
Smart farming technology is becoming of the actual topics in the modern world of technology. Contemporary farming technology expands robot applications by using AI for the recognition of variable patterns. Moreover, the agriculture field demands a sa...
Continuum robots with outstanding compliance, dexterity, and lean bodies are successfully applied in medicine, aerospace engineering, the nuclear industry, rescue operations, construction, service, and manipulation. However, the inherent low stiffnes...
Smooth-backboned “continuum” robot structures offer novel ways to create robot shapes and movements. In this paper, we show how circumnutation, a motion strategy commonly employed by plants, can be implemented and usefully exploited with...
Controlling flexible and continuously structured continuum robots is a challenging task in the field of robotics and control systems. This study explores the use of reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms in controlling a three-section planar continuu...
This study addresses the clinical requirements of a transoral surgery-assisting continuum robot. This application requires both high bendability and stiffness in order to ensure precise positioning and stable fixation of surgical tools. To meet these...
This paper presents the design, construction, and implementation of a soft robotic system comprising a continuum manipulator arm equipped with a compliant gripper. Three main objectives were pursued: (1) developing a soft silicone gripper as an alter...
With the increasing demand of human beings for space exploration, space robots show great development potential. When grasping space objects with different sizes and shapes, cable-driven continuum arms have better performance than traditional robots....
Biological fish exhibit remarkable adaptability and exceptional swimming performance through their powerful and flexible bodies. Therefore, designing a continuum flexible body is significantly important for the development of a robotic fish. However,...
Developing small-scale continuum catheter robots with inherent soft bodies and high adaptability to different environments holds great promise for biomedical engineering applications. However, current reports indicate that these robots meet challenge...
For the problem of large joint angular velocity and high input in the trajectory planning and control of robots, an explicit-time trajectory tracking for a state-constraint continuum free-floating space robot with smooth joint-path and low input is p...
This paper studies an adaptive fault tolerant control (AFTC) scheme for a continuum robot subjected to unknown actuator faults, dynamics uncertainties, unknown disturbances, and prescribed performance. Specifically, to deal with uncertainties, a func...
A magnetic-controlled flexible continuum robot (MFCR) is a kind of continuum robot with small-size and flexibility that deforms under controlled magnetic fields, which makes MFCRs easy to fit in special sizes and designs and provides them with the ab...
In situ maintenance works for nuclear power plants are highly beneficial as they can significantly reduce the current maintenance cycle and cost. However, removing absorber balls in a constrained environment through an inspection port is fairly chall...
Continuum robots are good candidates for shape morphing. However, due to the coupled problem between kinematics and statics, the inverse kinematics of continuum robots is highly nonlinear, posing a challenging problem for real-time applications. This...
As one of the minimally invasive surgeries (MIS), transoral robotic surgery (TORS) contributes to excellent oncological and functional outcomes. This paper introduces a compliant and flexible robotic system for transoral surgery, consisting of an exe...
Soft continuum robots, characterized by their dexterous and compliant nature, often face limitations due to buckling under small loads. This study explores the enhancement of axial performance in soft robots intrinsically actuated with extensile flui...
Three-dimensional shape sensing in soft and continuum robotics is a crucial aspect for stable actuation and control in fields such as minimally invasive surgery, engine repairs and search and rescue operations, as the estimation of complex curvatures...
The utilisation of miniature robots has become essential in the domain of minimally invasive surgery and long-distance delivery of nanomedicine. Among these, the miniature magnetic continuum robot (MCR) stands out because of its simple structure and...
This paper presents a bio-inspired rigid–flexible continuum robot driven by flexible shaft tension–torsion synergy, tackling the trade-off between actuation complexity and flexibility in continuum robots. Inspired by the muscular arrangem...
This study has designed an easy-to-wear parallel continuum robot-based hand rehabilitation system that supports and enhances the finger’s flexion, extension, abduction, and adduction movements. The primary novelty of the proposed system lies in...
This paper presents a minimally invasive surgical robot system for endoluminal gastrointestinal endoscopy through natural orifices. In minimally invasive gastrointestinal endoscopic surgery (MIGES), surgical instruments need to pass through narrow en...
Continuum robots represent a class of highly sensitive, multiple-degrees-of-freedom robots that are biologically inspired. Because of their flexibility and accuracy, these robots can be used in maxillary sinus surgery. The design of an effective proc...
In the field of rigid parallel manipulators, the Delta parallel robot is one of the most popular choices in the industry due to its ability to adapt to a wide range of applications, particularly pick-and-place tasks. In this paper, the authors presen...
Continuum robots (CRs) are highly effective in grasping moving targets in space through whole-arm grasping (WAG), offering broad applicability and reliable capture. These characteristics make CRs particularly suitable for capturing non-cooperative sp...
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