Design of a Deployable Continuum Robot Using Elastic Kirigami-Origami

Inspired by Yoshimura origami, this study presents a novel deployable modular continuum robot that achieves configuration maintenance by utilizing active cables and passive elastic deformation of kirigami-origami. In this study, the synchronous motion of each module is improved by using slider-crank mechanisms. Using screw theory, the comprehensive kinematics of the proposed deployable kirigami-origami robot were analyzed, explaining how elastic restoring force is generated in each module. A physical prototype was developed, and the performance of this origami-inspired continuum robot was evaluated by comparing the motion properties of the proposed robot with the robot without elastic rings and synchronism mechanisms. Besides, position accuracy, trajectory tracking ability, stiffness, and load capacity experiments were also conducted. By integrating a pneumatic soft hand at the end of the proposed robot, an object-grasping experiment was conducted to verify the feasibility.