定荷重ばねを用いた伸縮・屈曲・収納が可能な柔軟ロボットアームの開発

抄録

Continuum robots that can reach objects through narrow and winding paths by their flexibility and compliance have shown promise for inspection, assembly, and pickup tasks in unstructured environments. High flexibility is a considerable advantage but reduces payload. Our goal of this study is to build a flexible robot arm that can pick up a heavy object. The use of a constant load spring with anisotropic stiffness increases the payload. We investigated the stiffness of the proposed robot in the direction of the center of gravity.