Task-constrained continuum manipulation in cluttered space

Continuum manipulators do not contain rigid links and can deform continuously to perform a whole arm manipulation. Hence, they are much more flexible than articulated manipulators to perform tasks in cluttered space. However, autonomous manipulation constrained by tasks other than grasping has not been studied for continuum manipulators. In this paper, we introduce a general and efficient approach for autonomous continuum manipulation under task constraints. We consider a spatial continuum manipulator with multiple uniform-curvature sections if not deformed. We further apply the approach to an example of inspection task in a cluttered environment to verify its effectiveness. The high-efficiency of our approach makes it suitable to run on-line for guiding task-constrained manipulation in real-time.