Manipulability and force ellipsoids for continuum robot manipulators

Manipulability and force ellipsoids have long been a useful tool for analyzing the relative capabilities of robotic, manipulators to move in, or to exert forces in, certain directions. The purpose of this paper is to first formulate, and then to examine, the manipulability and force ellipsoids for continuum robots. Continuum robots have continuously flexible backbones; consequently, their infinite-dimensional kinematics present special challenges in the formulation and interpretation of ellipsoids.