Design of an efficient estimator of the tip position and orientation for non-linfar very flexible robotic arms

This work presents a very lightweight flexible conical arm whose tip position and orientation is estimated with strain gauges distributed along the arm. The great flexibility of this arm implies a non-linear geometrical behaviour and therefore the linear model based on small deviations is not valid. Thus, a non-linear model is developed in which the position and orientation of the flexible arm is expressed as a function of the local curvature. This model is based on the assumption of the arm having all its mass concentrated at the tip. Experimental results are presented and they demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed estimator