Biomimetic Design and Kinematic Analysis of a Rope-Driven Soft Robotic Arm

Soft robotic arms have strong adaptability and their broad application prospects have been attracted increasing attention. In this paper, the structure of a kind of rope-driven soft robotic arm is designed based on the biological characteristics, and its kinematic model is established based on constant curvature analysis. The spatial posture and end position of the soft robotic arm are obtained through numerical simulations, and the results reveal the reachable workspace of the designed soft robotic arm. In addition, based on the inverse kinematics of soft robotic arm, the circular trajectory planning is analyzed and discussed. The experimental results of spatial posture and trajectory planning are consistent with the simulation results, which indicates that the designed soft robotic arm structure is reasonable and the kinematic analysis is correct.