Control of a cable-driven 2-DOF joint module with a flexible backbone

Dexterous robotic arms have gained increasing attention in the robotics community in recent years, especially snake-like robots. A cable-driven snake-like robot arm (CDSLRA) owns a number of promising advantages such as: light-weight structure, low energy consumption, high speed motion due to low moment inertia and it is suitable to work in constrained work-conditions. A prototype consisting a series of 2-degree of freedom (DOF) joint modules with flexible backbone is proposed in this research. The kinematic analysis of n-module CDSLRA with flexible backbone is performed and developed. In addition, the design and implementation of motion control is also discussed. Set of PID parameters from analytical approach and experiments are obtained and compared for step response of the servo motor. From the experiments, the 2-DOF joint module with flexible backbone shows good position control and tracking ability.