An Origami Continuum Robot Capable of Precise Motion Through Torsionally Stiff Body and Smooth Inverse Kinematics.

Continuum robot arms, with their hyper-redundant continuously deformable bodies, show great promise in applications deemed impossible for traditional rigid robot arms with discrete links and joints, such as navigating tight corners without getting stuck. However, existing continuum robots suffer from excessive twisting when subjected to offset loading, even resulting from their own body weight, which reduces their dexterity and precision. In this work, we present a continuum manipulator that is capable of providing passive torsional stiffness through an origami-inspired modular design, remedying the non-controllable twist typically present in continuum robots.