Neural Networks based approach for inverse kinematic modeling of a Compact Bionic Handling Assistant trunk

A common approach to resolve the problem of inverse kinematics of manipulators is based on the Jacobian matrix. However, depending on the complexity of the system to model the elements of the Jacobian matrices may not be calculated. To overcome intrinsic problems related to Jacobian matrix based methods, a new inverse kinematic modeling approach capable to approximate the inverse kinematics of a class of hyper-redundant continuum robots, namely Compact Bionic Handling Assistant (CBHA) is proposed in the present work. The proposed approach makes use of Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) and Radial Basis Function (RBF) Neural Networks as approximation methods. A validation using a rigid 6 DOF industrial manipulator demonstrates the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed approach.