Design of a Bio-inspired Extensible Continuum Manipulator with Variable Stiffness  

作　　者：Dongbao Sui Sikai Zhao Tianshuo Wang Yubin Liu Yanhe Zhu Jie Zhao 

机构地区：[1]State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System,Harbin Institute of Technology,Harbin,150001,China

出　　处：《Journal of Bionic Engineering》2025年第1期181-194,共14页仿生工程学报(英文版)

基　　金：supported by the National Key R&D Program of China(No.2018YFB1305400);the Major Research Plan of the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.92048301);the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.52025054);the Joint Research Fund between the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC)and Shen Zhen(No.U1713201).

摘　　要：This paper presents a continuum manipulator inspired by the anatomical characteristics of the elephant trunk.Specifically,the manipulator mimics the conoid profile of the elephant trunk,which helps to enhance its strength.The design features two concentric parts:inner pneumatically actuated bellows and an outer tendon-driven helical spring.The tendons control the omnidirectional bending of the manipulator,while the fusion of the pneumatic bellows with the tendon-driven spring results in an antagonistic actuation mechanism that provides the manipulator with variable stiffness and extensibility.This paper presents a new design for extensible manipulator and analyzes its stiffness and motion characteristics.Experimental results are consistent with theoretical analysis,thereby demonstrating the validity of the theoretical approach and the versatile practical mechanical properties of the continuum manipulator.The impressive extensibility and variable stiffness of the manipulator were further demonstrated by performing a pin-hole assembly task.

关 键 词：Bioinspired robots Continuum robots Soft robotics Variable stiffness 

分 类 号：TP2[自动化与计算机技术—检测技术与自动化装置]