Efficient Hybrid Approach to Inverse Kinematics of Mobile Continuum Manipulators

Abstract

Inverse kinematics (IK) is a mathematical model used in robotic control algorithms for object manipulation, task implementation, obstacle avoidance, and navigation. Determining IK remains a major challenge for mobile continuum manipulators (MCMs) due to the high intrinsic deformability of the continuum manipulator (CM) and the additional degrees of freedom coming from the mobile platform. This article proposes a combination of iterative and analytical methods to solve the inverse kinematics problem of a two-section cylindrical MCM (TSCMCM). Robot configurations are divided into redundant and non-redundant configurations. Then, the iterative method is used to parameterize the redundant configurations of the robot. This parameterization is performed using the adaptive grid search (AGS) method. The other configurations are determined using a novel closed-form IK solution. The latter is derived from the robot’s forward kinematic equations and an analysis of the robot’s singular behaviors. The high accuracy and real-time applicability of the proposed inverse kinematic model (IKM) have been validated by a set of simulations involving complex trajectories, obstacles, robot dynamic parameters, physical latency, and sensor noise. Furthermore, a comparison with existing methods demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed IKM.