Study on the load capacity of a single-section continuum manipulator

This paper presents a simplified method to establish a mathematical model for predicting the loaded posture of a single-section continuum manipulator with arbitrary shape and size of the cross-section. The method constructs a parameter of equivalent bending stiffness for the manipulator and later considers the single-section continuum manipulator to be an equivalent Euler-beam while discussing the symmetry of the cross-section. Thus, the tip position and posture of the manipulator under load are deduced using the large deflection theory and unit load method. The loading model of the single-section continuum manipulator is verified by experiment, and the result indicates that the error between the theoretical model and the experiment is no more than 6%.