2025/12/07 by Rajneesh, Shrreya, Pavle, Nikita, Sahoo, Rakesh Kumar +1
Engineering · #Dynamics and Control of Mechanical Systems #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Electrical engineering #Robotics (cs.RO) #Soft Robotics and Applications #Space Satellite Systems and Control #Systems and Control (eess.SY) #electronic engineering #information engineering
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2512.06754
openalex publication_date 2025/12/07 · openalex created_date 2025/12/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Continuum manipulators offer intrinsic dexterity and safe geometric compliance for navigation within confined and obstacle-rich environments. However, their infinite-dimensional backbone deformation, unmodeled internal friction, and configuration-dependent stiffness fundamentally limit the reliability of model-based kinematic formulations, resulting in inaccurate Jacobian predictions, artificial singularities, and unstable actuation behavior. Motivated by these limitations, this work presents a complete model-less control framework that bypasses kinematic modeling by using an empirically initialized Jacobian refined online through differential convex updates. Tip motion is generated via a real-time quadratic program that computes actuator increments while enforcing tendon slack avoidance and geometric limits. A backbone tension optimization term is introduced in this paper to regulate axial loading and suppress co-activation compression. The framework is validated across circular, pentagonal, and square trajectories, demonstrating smooth convergence, stable tension evolution, and sub-millimeter steady-state accuracy without any model calibration or parameter identification. These results establish the proposed controller as a scalable alternative to model-dependent continuum manipulation in a constrained environment.