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Design, Sensing, and Planning: Fundamentally Coupled Problems for Continuum Robots

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Robotics Research

Part of the book series: Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics ((SPAR,volume 2))

Abstract

Designing a continuum robot’s geometry, sensing its shape/state in space, and planning collision-free trajectories that meet the needs of an application were initially thought of as decoupled problems for continuum robots. However, a body of literature is beginning to emerge showing advantages in solving various combinations of two of these three problems simultaneously. In this paper we argue that all three of these problems are fundamentally connected for continuum robots, that the connection can be analyzed using statistical state estimation, and that considering the three problems simultaneously can lead to better overall solutions. We provide examples for concentric-tube continuum robots.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Institutes of Health under awards R21 EB017952 and R01 EB017467, and the National Science Foundation under award IIS-1054331.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nashville, TN, 37235, USA

    Arthur W. Mahoney, Trevor L. Bruns & Robert J. Webster III

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA

    Ron Alterovitz

Authors
  1. Arthur W. Mahoney
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  2. Trevor L. Bruns
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  3. Ron Alterovitz
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  4. Robert J. Webster III
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Arthur W. Mahoney .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy , Pisa, Italy

    Antonio Bicchi

  2. Inst. für Informatik, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg Inst. für Informatik, Freiburg, Germany

    Wolfram Burgard

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Mahoney, A.W., Bruns, T.L., Alterovitz, R., Webster III, R.J. (2018). Design, Sensing, and Planning: Fundamentally Coupled Problems for Continuum Robots. In: Bicchi, A., Burgard, W. (eds) Robotics Research. Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51532-8_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51532-8_17

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51532-8

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