A metaheuristic approach to solve inverse kinematics of continuum manipulators

Continuum robot modeling is a research topic that focuses on ways to develop kinematic models while respecting some kinematics specificity as well as mechanical properties of such class of robots. The purpose of this article is to present a new alternative approach for solving inverse kinematic models for multi-sections of continuum manipulators. To achieve this work, it is assumed that each constitutive section is curved in a circular arc shape with an inextensible central structure axis. At first, the article presents a solution of an inverse kinematic model for one bending section and details some adopted methodologies, based on the identical inverse kinematic model of parallel robots, used for computation of the links' length. The latter allows concatenating between multiple platforms to realize a bending section. The inverse kinematic model of the multi-section manipulator is then developed using a modular concept where the endpoint coordinates of each bending section are determined using a metaheuristic method. Finally, to validate the proposed approach, some simulation and experimental studies have been carried out on the Compact Bionic Handling Arm. From this investigation, it was found that the multiple test results show the ability of the developed metaheuristic approach to avoid obstacles and to adopt a real-time implementation with multi-section configuration. On the other hand, this type of concept can enable to model all continuum robots with multiple bending sections.