A Monolithic Tendon-Driven Continuum Robot Design for Easy 3D Printing and Assembly

This paper introduces a 3D-printable tendon-driven continuum robot design for experimental and educational purposes. Differently from similar robots, made of a flexible backbone and separate vertebrae for tendon routing, the proposed design is monolithic. Thus, the entire flexible segment can be 3D printed as a single part with a flexible filament. To validate the proposed design, a 3D-printed segment is here experimentally tested and characterized, showing an accuracy on par with similar, but more complex and expensive, designs.