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Review

Tendon-Driven Continuum Robots for Aerial Manipulation—A Survey of Fabrication Methods

by
Anuraj Uthayasooriyan
1,*,
Fernando Vanegas
1,
Amir Jalali
2,
Krishna Manaswi Digumarti
1,
Farrokh Janabi-Sharifi
2 and
Felipe Gonzalez
1
1
QUT Centre for Robotics (QCR), School of Electrical Engineering and Robotics, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane 4000, Australia
2
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Toronto Metropolitan University, 350 Victoria St, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Submission received: 4 April 2024 / Revised: 9 June 2024 / Accepted: 12 June 2024 / Published: 17 June 2024
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles)

Abstract

Aerial manipulators have seen a rapid uptake for multiple applications, including inspection tasks and aerial robot–human interaction in building and construction. Whilst single degree of freedom (DoF) and multiple DoF rigid link manipulators (RLMs) have been extensively discussed in the aerial manipulation literature, continuum manipulators (CMs), often referred to as continuum robots (CRs), have not received the same attention. This survey seeks to summarise the existing works on continuum manipulator-based aerial manipulation research and the most prevalent designs of continuous backbone tendon-driven continuum robots (TDCRs) and multi-link backbone TDCRs, thereby providing a structured set of guidelines for fabricating continuum robots for aerial manipulation. With a history spanning over three decades, dominated by medical applications, CRs are now increasingly being used in other domains like industrial machinery and system inspection, also gaining popularity in aerial manipulation. Fuelled by diverse applications and their associated challenges, researchers have proposed a plethora of design solutions, primarily falling within the realms of concentric tube (CT) designs or tendon-driven designs. Leveraging research works published in the past decade, we place emphasis on the preparation of backbones, support structures, tendons, stiffness control, test procedures, and error considerations. We also present our perspectives and recommendations addressing essential design and fabrication aspects of TDCRs in the context of aerial manipulation, and provide valuable guidance for future research and development endeavours in this dynamic field.
Keywords: aerial manipulation; continuum arm aerial manipulation; tendon-driven continuum robots; continuum robots; continuum manipulators; continuum robot design; continuum robot fabrication aerial manipulation; continuum arm aerial manipulation; tendon-driven continuum robots; continuum robots; continuum manipulators; continuum robot design; continuum robot fabrication

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Uthayasooriyan, A.; Vanegas, F.; Jalali, A.; Digumarti, K.M.; Janabi-Sharifi, F.; Gonzalez, F. Tendon-Driven Continuum Robots for Aerial Manipulation—A Survey of Fabrication Methods. Drones 2024, 8, 269. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/drones8060269

AMA Style

Uthayasooriyan A, Vanegas F, Jalali A, Digumarti KM, Janabi-Sharifi F, Gonzalez F. Tendon-Driven Continuum Robots for Aerial Manipulation—A Survey of Fabrication Methods. Drones. 2024; 8(6):269. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/drones8060269

Chicago/Turabian Style

Uthayasooriyan, Anuraj, Fernando Vanegas, Amir Jalali, Krishna Manaswi Digumarti, Farrokh Janabi-Sharifi, and Felipe Gonzalez. 2024. "Tendon-Driven Continuum Robots for Aerial Manipulation—A Survey of Fabrication Methods" Drones 8, no. 6: 269. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/drones8060269

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