Leland Stanford Junior University

Michael C Yip

David B Camarillo

A method includes receiving position information and force information, providing control commands to a steering mechanism of a continuum manipulator based on the position information and the force information, updating a control matrix based on the position information and the provided control commands, and providing updated control commands to the steering mechanism based on the updated control matrix. A continuum manipulator includes a body, a steering mechanism configured to steer the body, sensors, and a controller. The sensors include a position sensor to detect a position of the body and a force sensor to detect a force against the body. The controller is configured to receive position information from the position sensor and force information from the force sensor, provide control commands to the steering mechanism based on the position information and the force information, and update a control matrix based on the position information and the provided control commands.

Position/force control of a flexible manipulator under model-less control

A control method includes empirically constructing for a flexible manipulator an estimated mapping between an end-effector movement and a plurality of values representing movement of at least one actuator, measuring an actual end-effector movement and an actual movement of the at least one actuator, and, based on the measuring, updating the estimated mapping while the flexible manipulator is active such that the mapping is adapted to the present environment of the flexible manipulator.

Growing community of inventors

Stanford, CA, United States of America

Michael C Yip