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.

中文翻译：

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基于改进人工势场法的连续超冗余机械臂总体配置规划方法


连续体超冗余机械臂（CHRM）凭借其独特的结构优势，已广泛应用于航空航天、医疗等领域，以完成狭窄、多障碍环境下的任务。由于冗余性，CHRM的逆运动学相当复杂，轨迹规划一直是CHRM研究的重点和难点。为了解决这个问题，本研究提出了一种基于改进的人工势场（APF）方法的CHRM整体配置规划方法。该方法避免了复杂的逆运动学，大大降低了计算复杂度。首先，基于已知的目标配置和最小安全距离构建内部没有障碍物的虚拟引导管道（VGP）。通过 APF 方法，CHRM 的运动被限制在管道内。然后，我们提出了一种在VGP中构造引导势场的方法来解决传统人工势场方法的局部最小值问题。进一步，针对总体配置规划中的矛盾力问题，提出了最大工作规划策略。最后进行了仿真，结果表明该方法在规划效率、环境适应性等方面具有较高的性能。