MS Mechanical Sciences MS Mech. Sci. 2191-916X Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/ms-2-51-2011 Continuum robots and underactuated grasping Giri N. 1 Walker I. 1 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA 08 02 2011 2 1 51 58 Copyright: © 2011 N. Giri 2011 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is available from https://ms.copernicus.org/articles/2/51/2011/ms-2-51-2011.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://ms.copernicus.org/articles/2/51/2011/ms-2-51-2011.pdf

We discuss the capabilities of continuum (continuous backbone) robot structures in the performance of under-actuated grasping. Continuum robots offer the potential of robust grasps over a wide variety of object classes, due to their ability to adapt their shape to interact with the environment via non-local continuum contact conditions. Furthermore, this capability can be achieved with simple, low degree of freedom hardware. However, there are practical issues which currently limit the application of continuum robots to grasping. We discuss these issues and illustrate via an experimental continuum grasping case study. <br><br> <i>This paper was presented at the IFToMM/ASME International Workshop on Underactuated Grasping (UG2010), 19 August 2010, Montréal, Canada.</i>

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