Robotica

Table of Contents - July 2011 - Volume 29, Issue 04  

Articles

A worm-inspired new spatial hyper-redundant manipulator

Jaime Gallardo-Alvaradoa1 c1, Raúl Lesso-Arroyoa1 and J. Santos García-Mirandaa1

a1 Instituto Tecnológico de Celaya, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Av. Tecnológico y García Cubas, 38010 Celaya, GTO, Mexico

SUMMARY

In this work a novel spatial hyper-redundant manipulator inspired in the motions of the worms is introduced. The displacement analysis is presented in a semi-closed form solution, whereas the velocity and acceleration analyses are carried out by means of the theory of screws. Among typical applications of most hyper-redundant manipulators, interesting biomechanical applications such as the simulation of the motion of the spine are available for this new artificial worm.

(Received July 16 2010)

(Online publication August 13 2010)

KEYWORDS:

  • Human biomechanics;
  • Novel applications of robotics;
  • Parallel manipulators;
  • Redundant manipulators;
  • Space kinematics

Correspondence:

c1 Corresponding author. E-mail: gjaime@itc.mx