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. 2023 May 2;21(5):1592–1609. doi: 10.1007/s12555-022-0159-8

Recent Developments of Actuation Mechanisms for Continuum Robots: A Review

Ibrahim A Seleem 1,2,✉, Haitham El-Hussieny 3,4, Hiroyuki Ishii 1
PMCID: PMC10153025  PMID: 37151813

Abstract

Traditional rigid robots face significant challenges in congested and tight environments, including bulky size, maneuverability, and safety limitations. Thus, soft continuum robots, inspired by the incredible capabilities of biological appendages such as octopus arms, starfish, and worms, have shown promising performance in complex environments due to their compliance, adaptability, and safety. Different actuation techniques are implemented in soft continuum robots to achieve a smoothly bending backbone, including cable-driven actuators, pneumatic actuators, and hydraulic actuation systems. However, designing and developing efficient actuation mechanisms, motion planning approaches, and control algorithms are challenging due to the high degree of redundancy and non-linearity of soft continuum robots. This article profoundly reviews the merits and drawbacks of soft robots’ actuation systems concerning their applications to provide the readers with a brief review reference to explore the recent development of soft robots’ actuation mechanisms technology. Moreover, the authors have surveyed the recent review studies in controller design of continuum robots as a guidance for future applications.

Keywords: Actuation mechanisms, flexible robot, soft structure, twisted cable polymer

Footnotes

Ibrahim A. Seleem would like to acknowledge the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) for granting him scholarship to carry out his post graduate studies in Waseda University, Japan and fully support this research work. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP22F21076, JP21H05055, JP19H01130.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that there is no competing financial interest or personal relationship that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Ibrahim A. Seleem received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in mechatronics and robotics engineering from the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology (E-JUST) in 2017 and 2020, respectively. Since 2020, he has been working as an assistant professor at Industrial Electronics and Control Engineering, Menoufia University, Egypt. He is currently a Visiting JSPS Scholar at the Modern Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan. His research interests include dynamics, motion planning and control of nonlinear systems, soft robotics, teleoperation, and humanoid robots.

Haitham El-Hussieny received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in mechatronics and robotics engineering from the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology (E-JUST) in 2013 and 2016, respectively. In August 2019, he took up the Senior Research Fellow in Soft Robotics at the Centre for Autonomous Systems and Advanced Robotics at the University of Salford in Manchester, UK. Recently, he has been working as an Associate Professor in mechatronics and robotics engineering at E-JUST. His research expertise includes soft robotics, soft haptics, teleoperation, human-robot interaction, and applied intelligence.

Hiroyuki Ishii received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in mechanical engineering from Waseda University Japan, in 2002 and 2004, respectively. He then received his Ph.D. degree in biomedical engineering from Waseda University, Japan, in 2007. He is currently a professor at the Department of Modern Mechanical Engineering, Waseda University. He obtained the Young Scientists’ Prize, The Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan, in 2018. His research interests are focused on interactive robots which induce behavior modifications on humans and animals.

Publisher’s Note

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Contributor Information

Ibrahim A. Seleem, Email: ibrahim.selim@el-eng.menofia.edu.eg

Haitham El-Hussieny, Email: haitham.elhussieny@ejust.edu.eg.

Hiroyuki Ishii, Email: hiro.ishii@waseda.jp.

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