Statics modeling of an underactuated wire-driven flexible robotic arm

Abstract

In this paper, statics model of an underactuated wire-driven flexible robotic arm is introduced. The robotic arm is composed of a serpentine backbone and a set of controlling wires. It has decoupled bending rigidity and axial rigidity, which enables the robot large axial payload capacity. Statics model of the robotic arm is developed using the Newton-Euler method. Combined with the kinematics model, the robotic arm deformation as well as the wire motion needed to control the robotic arm can be obtained. The model is validated by experiments. Results show that, the proposed model can well predict the robotic arm bending curve. Also, the bending curve is not affected by the wire pre-tension. This enables the wire-driven robotic arm with potential applications in minimally invasive surgical operations.

Maker based shape tracking of a flexible serpentine manipulator

“…In free motion mode, by varying the tension of the wire pair, the flexible arm can be articulated side by side in a plane, forming a "C" shape. However, when subject to gravity and other external load, the motion of the manipulator is much more complicated, forming various "S" like shapes [14]. There are various depth measurement methods techniques such as photometric stereo, statistical approaches or object models.…”

“…The tendondriven serpentine manipulator is one form of flexible manipulator that has the additional advantage of being compact and less complex. Therefore, a transoral surgical robotic system with tendon-driven serpentine manipulator [4,14] is developed.…”

“…However, when the flexible arm is interacting with external environment and subject to friction force, which is very likely in most manipulation tasks, the constant curvature assumption does not hold anymore. Researchers have developed statics models to estimate the bending curvature with known tendon tension profiles and external load [13], [14]. However, these methods don't incorporate external disturbances such as friction and requires the cumbersome force sensor setup.…”

Shape reconstruction for wire-driven flexible robots based on Bézier curve and electromagnetic positioning

“…When there is a large payload, the backbone may bend to an S shape, and the constant curvature does not stand anymore. The joints rotations can be solved through static analysis as introduced in [25] when the payload is known. Therefore, the EMT method is needed to provide the position and direction of the robot tip in the application that the external payload or force is unknown.…”

Research on micromanipulator’s clamping force sensing based on static wirerope tension of a surgical robot

“…Chen et al 16 studied a kind of 7-degree-of-freedom (DoF) cable-driven manipulator, and a static equation of the manipulator is deduced according to the torque equilibrium. Li et al 17 studied the static model of an underactuated wire-driven flexible robotic arm using the Newton-Euler method. The relations among the static wirerope tension, the real frictions, and the clamping force of 3-DoF micromanipulator are the key problems in this article.…”