Inverse Kinematics Analysis Of A P2cup2cu Concentric Tube Robot With Embedded Micro-Actuation For 3t-1r Contactless Tasks

This paper introduces a novel kinematic structure based on the concentric tube robot (CTR) paradigm, augmented with embedded soft micro-actuation. The latter allows to replace troublesome R-joints in CTR with 3 tubes by active tube curvatures (Cu-joints). First, the forward kinematic model is derived. Furthermore, the inverse kinematic problem is partially solved by restricting it to 3-translations/1-rotation movements. Finally, the inverse model is used to perform path planning schemes in medical scenarios.