Continuum robots with multi-scale motion through equilibrium modulation

A system comprising:

• a bendably articulatable body including
• a control disk,
• a bendable, rigid central backbone fixedly coupled to a center of the control disk, and
• a secondary backbone fixedly coupled to the control disk at a defined distance from the center of the control disk,
• wherein the movement actuator is configured to adjustably apply the bending force to the bendably articulatable body by controllably adjusting a linear position of a proximal end of the secondary backbone relative to a proximal end of the central backbone;
• and
• a movement actuator configured to
• controllably adjust a bending movement of the bendably articulatable body through direct actuation by adjustably applying a bending force to the bendably articulatable body, and
• controllably adjust the bending movement of the bendably articulatable body through indirect actuation by controllably adjusting a flexural rigidity of the bendably articulatable body.

A system comprising:

• a bendably articulatable body;
• a movement actuator configured to
• controllably adjust a bending movement of the bendably articulatable body through direct actuation by adjustably applying a bending force to the bendably articulatable body, and
• controllably adjust the bending movement of the bendably articulatable body through indirect actuation by controllably adjusting a flexural rigidity of the bendably articulatable body;
• and
• an electronic controller configured to control movement of the bendably articulatable body by providing control signals to the movement actuator, wherein the electronic controller is configured to:
• operate the movement actuator under macro-scale control by adjusting the bending force applied to the bendably articulatable body until the bendably articulatable body bends to an intermediate position within a threshold distance of a target position, and
• operate the movement actuator under micro-scale control by adjusting the flexural rigidity of the bendably articulatable body until the bendably articulatable body bends from the intermediate position to the target position.

A method of adjustably controlling a pose of a bendably articulatable body, the method comprising:

• controllably adjusting a bending movement of the bendably articulatable body through direct actuation by adjustably applying a bending force to the bendably articulatable body;
• controllably adjust the bending movement of the bendably articulatable body through indirect actuation by controllably adjusting a flexural rigidity of the bendably articulatable body, and
• wherein the bendably articulatable body includes a hollow tube and an equilibrium modulating wire slidably positioned inside the hollow tube, and
• wherein controllably adjusting the flexural rigidity of the bendably articulatable body includes controllably adjusting a linear position of the equilibrium modulating wire relative to the hollow tube.