An Overall Configuration Planning Method of Continuum Hyper-Redundant Manipulators Based on Improved Artificial Potential Field Method

Continuum hyper-redundant manipulators (CHRMs) have been widely applied in aerospace, medical or other fields to complete tasks in narrow and multi-obstacles environments with its unique structural advantages. Due to the redundancy, the inverse kinematics of CHRMs is rather complex and the trajectory planning has always been the focal and challenging point in the research of CHRMs. To tackle this issue, the present study proposes an overall configuration planning method of CHRMs based on the improved artificial potential field (APF) method. The method avoids the complicated inverse kinematics and vastly reduces the computational complexity. First, a virtual guiding pipeline (VGP) with no obstacles inside is constructed based on a known target configuration and the minimum safe distance. The movement of the CHRM is restricted to the pipe by the APF method. Then, we propose a method to construct a guided potential field in the VGP to solve the local minimum problem of the traditional artificial potential field method. Further, to address the issue of contradictory forces in the overall configuration planning, the maximum-work planning strategy is proposed. Finally, simulations are conducted and the results demonstrate the high performance of the method in terms of planning efficiency, environmental adaptability.