Visual servoing of continuum robots: Methods, challenges, and prospects

Recent advancements in continuum robotics have accentuated developing efficient and stable controllers to handle shape deformation and compliance. The control of continuum robots (CRs) using physical sensors attached to the robot, particularly in confined spaces, is difficult due to their limited accuracy in three-dimensional deflections and challenging localisation. Therefore, using non-contact imaging sensors finds noticeable importance, particularly in medical scenarios. Accordingly, given the need for direct control of the robot tip and notable uncertainties in the kinematics and dynamics of CRs, many papers have focussed on the visual servoing (VS) of CRs in recent years.

The significance of this research towards safe human-robot interaction has fuelled our survey on the previous methods, current challenges, and future opportunities.

Beginning with actuation modalities and modelling approaches, the paper investigates VS methods in medical and non-medical scenarios.

Finally, challenges and prospects of VS for CRs are discussed, followed by concluding remarks.