Modeling, Calibration, and Evaluation of a Tendon-Actuated Planar Parallel Continuum Robot

• Published in: IEEE robotics and automation letters 2020-10, Vol.5 (4), p.5811-5818
• Main Authors: Nuelle, Kathrin, Sterneck, Tim, Lilge, Sven, Xiong, Dezhu, Burgner-Kahrs, Jessica, Ortmaier, Tobias
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Calibration; calibration and identification; Chains; Curvature; Flexible robots; Kinematics; Legged locomotion; Model accuracy; Modelling; Parallel robots; Prototypes; Robots; Segments; Tendons
• ISSN: 2377-3766; 2377-3766
• DOI: 10.1109/LRA.2020.3010213

In this work, a novel planar parallel continuum robot (PCR) is introduced, consisting of three kinematic chains that are coupled at a triangular end-effector platform and include tendon-actuated continuum segments. The kinematics of the resulting structure are derived by adapting the descriptions for conventional planar parallel manipulators to include constant curvature bending of the utilized continuous segments. To account for friction and non-linear material effects, a data-driven model is used to relate tendon displacements and curvature of the utilized continuum segments. A calibration of the derived kinematic model is conducted to specifically represent the constructed prototype. This includes the calibration of geometric parameters for each kinematic chain and for the end-effector platform. During evaluation, positioning repeatability of 1.0% in relation to one continuum segment length of the robot, and positioning accuracy of 1.4%, are achieved. These results are comparable to commonly used kineto-static modeling approaches for PCR. The presented model achieves high path accuracies regarding the robot's end-effector pose in an open-loop control scenario.