An Analytical and Experimental Study of Hyper-Redundant Mechanisms

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The research comprises an analytical and experimental study of hyper-redundant mechanisms. Hyper-redundant mechanisms are defined as highly articulated devices with a large or infinite number of degrees of freedom, and are analogous to snakes, elephant trunks, tentacles, etc. These devices have potential applications in robotic manipulation and locomotion, as well as many other non robotics applications such as articulated space structures, medical endoscopes, and flagellum like fluid propulsion. This investigation focuses on basic geometric, kinematic, dynamic and control issues related to hyper-redundant mechanisms. The analytical phase focuses on a differential geometry based approach to the kinematic analysis and geometric control of this class of mechanisms. In the experimental phase, a planar hyper-redundant device will be implemented in hardware and algorithms developed in the theoretical study will be tested and verified.