Dynamic Modeling and Verification of Continuum Robot Based on Cable Drive

With infinite degrees of freedom, continuum robot can achieve continuous bending deformation, and has a flexible application prospects. A kind of modular continuum robot based on Polyurethane (PU) is proposed. At the same time, a 3D geometric model of the robot is established. For this configuration, the absolute node coordinate method is used to calculate the element mass matrix, element stiffness matrix and element elasticity matrix, etc. The system matrix is integrated and substituted into the multi-body system dynamics equation to obtain the dynamic equation of the robot in this configuration. In the same working condition, the fourth-order Runge-Kutta algorithm and symplectic algorithm are respectively used to solve the system dynamics equation. By comparison, it can be found that the final results of the two algorithms are the same, and the symplectic algorithm takes less time to calculate. Therefore, the symplectic algorithm is used to solve problems in this paper. In the static experiment, the error between the experimental results and the theoretical calculation results is compared to verify the correctness of the quasi-static system model. In the dynamic experiment, photogrammetric technique is used to obtain the dynamic experimental data of measuring points. By comparing the experimental data with the theoretical research numerical calculation, the correctness of dynamic modeling is verified.