Continuum Robot Segments With High Output Stiffness via Diagonal Backbones

Continuum robots offer unique advantages for applications such as minimally invasive surgery, navigation through confined environments, and safe human-robot interaction. However, while most continuum robot segments are designed to exhibit constant curvature over their length, they passively deform i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE robotics and automation letters Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 490 - 497
Main Authors: Eisenhauer, Ethan, Milam, Eli, Gaston, Joshua, Rucker, Caleb
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Piscataway IEEE 01.01.2026
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subjects:
Actuation
Actuators
and learning for soft robots
Bending
Confined spaces
Continuum robots
control
Curvature
Deformation
Degrees of freedom
Design
End effectors
flexible robotics
Human engineering
Image segmentation
Kinematics
modeling
Motion segmentation
Payloads
Prototypes
Robot dynamics
Robots
Segments
Soft robot materials and design
Solid modeling
Stiffness
tendon/wire mechanism
Translations
Vibration
ISSN:2377-3766, 2377-3766
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Continuum robots offer unique advantages for applications such as minimally invasive surgery, navigation through confined environments, and safe human-robot interaction. However, while most continuum robot segments are designed to exhibit constant curvature over their length, they passively deform into a non-constant curvature s-shape when holding payloads at the tip, and their dynamic movement is often subject to unwanted vibration of the passive non-constant curvature modes. In this letter, we propose a simple solution to dramatically improve these issues: a continuum robot segment design that utilizes a diagonal backbone and flexible push-pull actuation rods. This simple modification to common continuum-robot construction enables us to eliminate the passive s-shaped mode, creating a bending segment that can handle large loads without significant deformation or vibration while requiring no more actuation force than conventional designs. We show that a modified version of 1-DOF constant-curvature kinematics accurately describes the structure when actuator translations are equal and opposite. We also develop and validate a 2-DOF model that predicts tip position and orientation resulting from more general actuation inputs. The models and increased output stiffness were verified experimentally and the concept was demonstrated on a multi-segment robot following a 3D trajectory with minimal disturbance from added loads.
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ISSN:2377-3766
2377-3766
DOI:10.1109/LRA.2025.3629942