Driven by the inherent difficulty in understanding the operation of continuum robots, we
sought to use a non-traditional approach to continuum robot control, using a non-redundant, rigid-
link robotic arm as a teleoperative input device. The design of this experiment merges the two
distinct topologies of rigid-link and continuum robotics with the intent of creating an intuitive
relation that allows users to control continuum robots using rigid-link systems. This scheme gives
the user physical control of a widely available system type with anthropomorphic kinematics in order
to manipulate a more specialized device with more complex and less intuitive kinematics.
As our chosen teleoperative input device, we used a Kinova Mico Research Arm: a
kinematically non-redundant, rigid link arm with 6 DoF (seen below). The Mico Arm was
chosen because it is representative of the large range of anthropomorphic robotic arms and its size
allows for easy manipulation by a human user. During experiments, the Mico Arm was placed in
”float” mode, which allowed the user to manipulate the arm freely while the robot automatically
compensated for gravity at each joint.
System flow for teleoperation of a continuum robot (OctArm) using a rigid-link robot (Kinova Mico) as an input device.
From left to right: Kinova Mico joint values sent to mapping programmed in MATLAB/Simulink. Mapping converts to lengths corresponding pressures
for OctArm, which is actuated through series of pressure regulators.
Examples of how different mappings could be used to relate the 6 DoF of the Kinova Mico to the 6 DoF of a planar, three section,
continuum robot. Mapping 1 is on the left, mapping 2 on the right, and the equivalent state of the OctArm via both mappings in the middle.