Design and Kinematic Modeling of a Notch Continuum Manipulator for Laryngeal Surgery

A notch continuum manipulator with a large cavity is presented. The continuum manipulator which is designed for laryngeal surgery is composed of guidewire discs and a Nitinol skeleton. The deformation of the continuum manipulator is superimposed by the flexible units, therefore its posture and driving force are coupled. Based on the small deformation cantilever beam theory, the mechanical model from the microscopic to the macroscopic is used to establish the mapping from the driving space to the joint space. The manipulator is assumed to be a multi-joint series robot. Based on the mechanical model, the mapping from the joint space to the Cartesian space is established by the Denavit-Hartenberg (D-H) method. The kinematics is established from the driving space to the Cartesian space. The proposed kinematic model is verified by a prototype. The experimental results show the validity of the model.