This SGER project will conduct basic theoretical and empirical work in control of continuous backbone "continuum" robot manipulators. The key goal of the project is to demonstrate, in hardware, practical control of continuum robot manipulation. Continuum structures have the potential to transform the nature of many robot applications. However, deployment of these robots is not yet practical, in large part due to difficulties in applying conventional robot control techniques. The proposed one year exploratory research is intended to lay the foundations for wider continuum robot research and application by establishing the practical ability of new techniques to successfully control continuum robots. We will design and implement a series of novel continuum robot controllers, taking into account the effects of the compliance built into these systems. The controllers will be tested using a unique hardware test bed at Clemson University featuring the OctArm series of continuum robot arms. We will implement all the developed controllers on the OctArm hardware, and test across a wide variety of trajectories and manipulation tasks.
