Forward kinematics of a compliant pneumatically actuated redundant manipulator

The Bionic Handling Assistant is a compliant, pneumatically actuated continuum manipulator designed to be used for cooperative manipulation. In 2010, it won the German Federal Presidents prize for achievements in technology and innovation, called Deutscher Zukunftspreis. Unlike most manipulators, its flexible structure is link and actuator at the same time, copying an elephant´s trunk. For this robot arm, the forward kinematics is derived and validated by test bench measurements. The forward kinematics is an analytical description of the manipulator´s backbone curvature. It describes the manipulator´s tool center point pose (position and orientation) dependent of the actuator expansions. The kinematic model is assembled of several in series connected three degrees of freedom parallel mechanisms of type 3UPS-1PU.