Tendon-Actuated Robots with a Tapered, Flexible Polymer Backbone: Design, Fabrication, and Modeling

TL;DR

This paper introduces a scalable, low-cost tendon-actuated continuum robot with a tapered TPU backbone, featuring a generalized Cosserat rod model validated by motion capture, enabling precise shape prediction and manipulation tasks.

Contribution

It develops a novel, explicit model for tapered backbone continuum robots, integrating geometric tapering effects into tendon actuation and providing a rapid design-to-control framework.

Findings

Model accurately predicts robot shape within centimeters after calibration.

Taper angle significantly affects the robot's configuration space and manipulability.

Validated model supports teleoperated grasping with a 6-DoF robotic arm.

Abstract

This paper presents the design, modeling, and fabrication of 3D-printed, tendon-actuated continuum robots featuring a flexible, tapered backbone constructed from thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). Our scalable design incorporates an integrated electronics base housing that enables direct tendon tension control and sensing via actuators and compression load cells. Unlike many continuum robots that are single-purpose and costly, the proposed design prioritizes customizability, rapid assembly, and low cost while enabling high curvature and enhanced distal compliance through geometric tapering, thereby supporting a broad range of compliant robotic inspection and manipulation tasks. We develop a generalized forward kinetostatic model of the tapered backbone based on Cosserat rod theory using a Newtonian approach, extending existing tendon-actuated Cosserat rod formulations to explicitly account for spatially varying backbone cross-sectional geometry. The model captures the graded stiffness profile induced by the tapering and enables systematic exploration of the configuration space as a function of the geometric design parameters. Specifically, we analyze how the backbone taper angle influences the robot's configuration space and manipulability. The model is validated against motion capture data, achieving centimeter-level shape prediction accuracy after calibrating Young's modulus via a line search that minimizes modeling error. We further demonstrate teleoperated grasping using an endoscopic gripper routed along the continuum robot, mounted on a 6-DoF robotic arm. Parameterized iLogic/CAD scripts are provided for rapid geometry generation and scaling. The presented framework establishes a simple, rapid, and reproducible pathway from parametric design to controlled tendon actuation for tapered, tendon-driven continuum robots manufactured using fused deposition modeling 3D printers.