Chinese scientists make progress on continuum robot obstacle avoidance

SHENYANG, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists have made progress in their research on the active obstacle avoidance of continuum robots, a development that has the potential to elevate the intelligence of robot-assisted surgeries.

The research was conducted by a team led by Liu Hao, a researcher at the Shenyang Institute of Automation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Zhang Zhongtao's team at the Beijing Friendship Hospital, which is affiliated with the Capital Medical University.

The findings have been published online in the International Journal of Robotics Research.

When operating in complex environments in the cavities of the human body, continuum robots can effectively avoid collisions with human tissue or between multiple robots, which is conducive to ensuring the safety and quality of a surgery.

However, due to the flexible structure of continuum robots and the irregularity of these environments, expressing this spatial and morphological relationship and achieving active, safe interaction pose challenges to enhancing the robots' capabilities in active obstacle avoidance.

To address the issue, the researchers proposed a framework for the control of active obstacle avoidance, including a concise expression of the geometric model of continuum robots and a method to detect collision between a robot and an obstacle of any shape.

The framework is an effective and feasible approach for continuum robots to conduct safe surgeries, and has the potential to promote the level of intelligence in robot-assisted surgeries, according to the researchers.