A Kinematics Method of Hyper-Redundant Manipulators Based on Morphologic Space Constraints

While a great number of degree of freedom (DOF) of hyper-redundant manipulators brings superior dexterity, it also challenges the more complicated kinematics algorithms. The kinematics method can not only affect its flexibility and obstacle avoidance ability, but also determine whether it runs efficiently and reliably. Hence, in this article, an effective kinematics method has been proposed based on the morphologic space constraints. It decomposes the resolution of inverse kinematics into two steps: 1) setting the target morphologic space and 2) tracking the morphologic space. In addition, because the proposed kinematics method would calculate the link end positions first but not the joint parameters, this article discards the joint space and obtains the configuration space more directly, by which the method would be more intuitive and efficient. Afterward, a serpentine scanning motion mode, which is efficient, reliable, and of high performance in obstacle avoidance, was studied. Simulation and experiment results show that the kinematics method and serpentine scanning motion mode can meet the requirements of real-time control and obstacle avoidance.