A Continuum Robot Based on a Conical Helical Configuration for Adaptive Grasping of Irregular Objects
LinFeng Li, Shouzhong Li, Maorong Wang, Yitao Chen, Xinyu Kuang, Junli Li, Yuansen Yue, Haoyang Chen
Abstract
This letter presents a novel continuum robot designed to overcome the limitations of existing winding-based grasping methods. The robot is based on a conical spiral curve design and consists of multiple 2-degree-of-freedom flexible joint, enabling lateral helical gripping of irregular objects. A structural parameter model of the robot is established to clarify the mapping between the geometric characteristics of the conical helical curve and the physical structural parameters of the robot. The kinematic model is established using the D–H method, and the static model is derived based on the Lagrange equation. Finite element simulations are conducted to establish the relationship between tendon driving force and tendon length variation. A physical prototype is fabricated and the performance of the robot is systematically validated through experiments. The results demon strate that the robot possesses stable posture control and adaptive grasping capability, enabling effective grasping of irregular objects with diameters ranging from 55 mm to 100 mm. The total mass of the robot is 190 g, and the maximum lateral grasping load reaches 459 g. Overall, this study provides an effective and innovative solution for addressing the winding grasping of irregular objects.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{ral2026_acontinuumrobotb,
title = {A Continuum Robot Based on a Conical Helical Configuration for Adaptive Grasping of Irregular Objects},
author = {LinFeng Li and Shouzhong Li and Maorong Wang and Yitao Chen and Xinyu Kuang and Junli Li and Yuansen Yue and Haoyang Chen},
booktitle = {RA-L 2026},
year = {2026}
}