Approximations to continuous curves of Active Cord Mechanism made of arc-shaped joints or double joints

In this paper, we discuss approximations to continuous curves of the Active Cord Mechanism (ACM) which is composed of arc-shaped joints or double joints. ACM is a machine which is made of a series of bending joints and forms a cord, and it has potential to work in challenging environment due to its large degree of freedom. In prior research most of ACM were composed of straight links and joints, and a lot of successful control methods for them have been proposed. However, the control of the ACM that is composed of arc-shaped joints or double joints has not been studied sufficiently so far. In this research we propose the method of approximations to continuous curves for such kind of ACM and use it for the control. The proposed idea is verified by numerical calculations and experiments by a robot.