Yang Mengxue, An Zhicheng, Lin Zechen, Wang Yuhang, Pang Tongtao, Du Fuxin
Beijing Tian Tan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
School of Mechanical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, China.
Front Robot AI. 2025 Mar 25;12:1523619. doi: 10.3389/frobt.2025.1523619. eCollection 2025.
Continuum robots are studied and applied in neurosurgery due to their high flexibility and adaptability. The basic performance of continuum is mainly evaluated by stiffness, but there is no systematic and universal evaluation system.
In this paper, a general experimental platform for continuum robots is designed, based on which the fundamental performance of the notched continuum robot used in neurosurgery is evaluated. The continuum stiffness evaluation method based on energy method and Castigliano's second theorem is proposed. By solving the internal force and energy of the notched continuum in sections, the stiffness model of single-segment and double-segment series continuum is established. The relationship between the stiffness of the continuum and the bending angle is obtained.
The simulation and experimental results show that under the condition of small deformation angle, the spatial stiffness model obtained by strain energy basically conforms to the actual model, which verifies the correctness and rationality of the stiffness calculation method proposed in this paper.
This paper is of significant importance to promote the performance evaluation and optimization of continuum.
连续体机器人因其高度的灵活性和适应性而在神经外科手术中得到研究和应用。连续体的基本性能主要通过刚度来评估，但目前尚无系统通用的评估体系。
本文设计了一种连续体机器人通用实验平台，并在此基础上对用于神经外科手术的带缺口连续体机器人的基本性能进行评估。提出了基于能量法和卡斯蒂利亚诺第二定理的连续体刚度评估方法。通过求解带缺口连续体各截面的内力和能量，建立了单段和双段串联连续体的刚度模型，得出了连续体刚度与弯曲角度之间的关系。
仿真和实验结果表明，在小变形角度条件下，由应变能得到的空间刚度模型基本符合实际模型，验证了本文提出的刚度计算方法的正确性和合理性。
本文对于推动连续体的性能评估和优化具有重要意义。
