Reducing Actuators in Soft Continuum Robots and Manipulators

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. The large number of actuators increases the cost a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mohamed Shoani, Mohamed Shoani, Ribuan, Mohamed Najib, Mohd Faudzi, Ahmad Athif, Mohamaddan, Shahrol
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/10104/1/J16249_02beddd850d713bcf4781bb3e261b77b.pdf
http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/10104/
https://doi.org/10.3390/app13010462
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Summary: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. The large number of actuators increases the cost and complexity of a SCRaM and reduces its reliability. In this paper, a methodol‐ ogy is presented to reduce the number of actuators employed by SCRaMs while maintaining their volumetric workspace. The method presents a new design approach involving one rotary and two linear actuators, providing three degrees of freedom (DOF) and a volumetric workspace. The result of applying the transformation is a 50–86% reduction in the total number of actuators typically em‐ ployed by multi‐segment SCRaMs. The application of this methodology reduces the cost and com‐ plexity of conventional multi‐segment SCRaMs while improving their efficiency and reliability