In general wire-driven continuum robot mechanisms, the wires are used to control the motion of the devices attached at the distal end. The slack and taut wire is one of the challenging issues to solve in flexible mechanism. This phenomenon becomes worse when the continuum robot is inserted into the natural orifices of the human body, which inherently have uncertain curvilinear geometries consisting of multiple curvatures. Inspired by the unique characteristic of DNA-helix structure that the length of the helix remains almost constant regardless of the deflection of the DNA structure, this article proposes a new idea to design useful flexible mechanism to resolve slack of wires. Using modern Lie-group screw theory, the analytic model for length of helix wire wrapped around a single flexible backbone is proposed and then extended to a general model with multiple flexible backbones and different curvatures. Taking advantage of this helix type wire mechanism, we designed and implemented a flexible surgical device suitable for laryngopharyngeal surgery. The effectiveness of the proposed flexible mechanism is demonstrated through both simulation and phantom experiment.

中文翻译：

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受 DNA-Helix 启发的圆柱形结构中的布线及其在柔性手术器械中的应用

在一般的线驱动连续体机器人机构中，线用于控制附接在远端的装置的运动。松弛和拉紧的钢丝是柔性机构中需要解决的具有挑战性的问题之一。当连续体机器人插入人体的自然孔道时，这种现象会变得更糟，而人体的自然孔道本质上具有由多个曲率组成的不确定的曲线几何形状。受 DNA 螺旋结构的独特特性（无论 DNA 结构如何偏转，螺旋长度几乎保持不变）的启发，本文提出了一种设计有用的柔性机构来解决电线松弛问题的新想法。利用现代李群螺旋理论，提出了缠绕在单个柔性骨架上的螺旋线长度的解析模型，然后扩展到具有多个柔性骨架和不同曲率的通用模型。利用这种螺旋式线机构，我们设计并实现了一种适用于喉咽手术的柔性手术装置。通过仿真和模型实验证明了所提出的灵活机制的有效性。