A New Solution for the Inverse Kinematics of Concentric-Tube Robots

The continuum tubular robots (CTRs) have shown its superiority in minimally invasive medical procedures. In general, concentric tubes are consist of super-elastic nickel-titanium alloy, they can show different shapes when they extend and rotate with each other. Due to the small diameter and high degree of dexterity, CTR can perform well in complex and limited environments. However, the calculation of the inverse kinematics of concentric tube robots is a difficult problem all the time, especially when the CTRs tubes deform constantly over time. In this paper, we present a new method based on data acquisition, which is proved to be a simple and effective method through simulation and experimental verification. For any single-arm, two-tube concentric tube robots, the corresponding list of the input parameters of CTRs driving part and the tip position of CTR is first collected. And then the inverse kinematics of concentric tube robot can be solved by the algorithm in this paper. This technique can not only deal with the deformation of CTRs, but also offer a different perspective to solve the inverse kinematics problem of concentric tube robots.