Task space-based orientability analysis and optimization of a wire-driven continuum robot

Compared to traditional rigid robots, continuum robots have intrinsic compliance and therefore behave dexterously when performing tasks in restricted environments. Although there have been many researches on the design and application of continuum robots, a theoretical investigation of their dexterity is still lacking. In this paper, a two-joint wire-driven continuum robot is utilized to demonstrate dexterity by introducing the concept of orientability taking into account two indices, the accessible ratio and angle of the robot, when its tip reaches a certain task space inside the workspace. Based on the kinematic model, the accessible ratio and angle of the continuum robot are calculated using the Monte-Carlo method. From this, the influence of individual joint lengths on the proposed orientability indices and the optimal joint length are then investigated via an improved particle swarm optimization algorithm. Finally, the presented methods were validated through experiments showing that the use of optimal joint length can increase the accessible ratio and reduce the minimum accessible angle by more than 10° in the task space.