Continuum Robot Control

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Overview

Continuum robot control aims to move a flexible robot’s tip or regulate its whole-body shape despite underactuation, deformation, and contact with the environment. Approaches range from Cosserat-rod and piecewise-constant-strain models with model-predictive or visual-servo control to learned dynamics, Koopman models, and reinforcement-learning policies. Camera-based and embedded sensing support feedback in settings such as surgical navigation, cluttered manipulation, locomotion, and aerial interaction, while safety controllers help manage collisions. A central challenge is balancing physically accurate models and reliable state estimation with the speed needed for real-time control, especially under contact, changing payloads, and sim-to-hardware transfer.

Latest papers

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71 papers4 papers in the last four weeks, down 67% on the four weeks before. 0.0% of all new papers.

  1. Design and Characterization of a Unified Continuum Robot Actuation Platform

    Oct 14, 2026Yunti Xu, Aedan Mangan, Miheer Potdar +2Modular RoboticsContinuum Robot Design

    Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, San Diego, CA, 92093, USA.

  2. An Open MuJoCo Simulation Framework for a Quadrotor Carrying a Tendon-Driven Soft Continuum Arm

    Oct 11, 2026Haitham El-HussienyAerial ManipulationRobotics Simulation

    Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology (E-JUST), Alexandria, Egypt

  3. Magnetic based In-situ Self 3D Pose Estimation for a Modular Soft Tendon-Driven Continuum Robot via IMU-Fusion

    Sep 30, 2026Zheng Cao, Guo Ning Sue, Xiangyun Bu +3Continuum Robot ControlRobot State Estimation

    Carnegie Mellon University

  4. Closed-Form Cartesian Forward Kinetostatics for Spatial Multi-Segment Tendon-Driven Continuum Robots

    Sep 29, 2026Ke Wu, Fangju Yang, Xiaohui Zhang +4RoboticsContinuum Robot Control

  5. Learning-Based Pressure Predictive Control of a Vertebraic Soft Robotic Tail

    Sep 24, 2026Wenjian Yang, Nan Huang, Yukang Nie +4Soft RoboticsContinuum Robot Control

  6. Reduced Cartesian Kinetostatics for Tendon-Driven Continuum Robots: Residual-Stabilized Full-Shape Propagation

    Sep 24, 2026Ke Wu, Fangju Yang, Xiaohui Zhang +3Continuum Robot Shape EstimationContinuum Robot Control

  7. A Support-Enhanced Granular-Jamming Gripper for RL-based Grasping with Continuum Manipulators

    Sep 24, 2026Danyu Liu, Tianlin Zhang, Wei Chen +3Robotic GraspingContinuum Robot Control

  8. Collocated Shape Regulation for Soft Robots

    Sep 23, 2026Pietro Pustina, Ebrahim Shahabi, Daniel Feliu-Talegon +2Continuum Robot ControlSoft Robotics

    Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy · Department of Cognitive Robotics, Delft University of Technology, 2628 CN Delft, The Netherlands · Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, German Aerospace Center (DLR), 82234 Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany

  9. Optimize, Learn, Refine: Whole-Body Grasping and Pick-and-Throw with a Spiral Soft Robot

    Sep 22, 2026Marwah Basuhai, Tingcong Liu, Ibrahim Alsarraj +2Robotic GraspingWhole-Body Robotic Manipulation

  10. Real-Time Whole-Body Safe Motion Generation for Multi-Segment Tendon-Driven Continuum Robots

    Sep 22, 2026Fangju Yang, Siyi Ma, Tonghao Guan +5Robot Motion GenerationContinuum Robot Control

  11. Cosserat Modeling of Trimmed Helicoid Soft Arms with a Separated-Section Constitutive Law

    Sep 21, 2026Zhihang Qin, Linxin Hou, Zeyu Zhong +10Structural MechanicsContinuum Robot Control

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore · Advanced Robotics Centre, National University of Singapore, Singapore · Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore +1

  12. Estimation and Control of Tensegrity Manipulator Kinematics based on Strut Inclination Angles

    Sep 21, 2026Tufail Ahmad Bhat, Shuhei IkemotoRobotic ControlTensegrity Robotics

    Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan

  13. Safety Control of a Hyper-redundant Robot via Adaptive Weighted Control Barrier Functions

    Sep 21, 2026Zijian Cai, Kiwan Wong, Wenci Xin +3Robot Trajectory TrackingControl Barrier Functions

    Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre, Singapore · CSAIL, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA · School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore +1

  14. Prescribed-Time Contracting-Boundary Control of a Tendon-Driven Flexible Arm

    Sep 19, 2026Yi Lu, Chao Tang, Zhiji Han +1Robot Trajectory TrackingFeedback Control

    School of Information Management, Hubei University of Economics, No. 8 Yangqiaohu Road, Canglongdao Development Park, Jiangxia District, Wuhan, 430205, China · College of Engineering, Ocean University of China, No. 1299 Sansha Road, Qingdao West Coast New Area, Qingdao, 266404, China

  15. Geometric Shortcuts for Complex Trunk Postures: Dual-Helicity Coupling Enables Low-Dimensional Control

    Sep 16, 2026Huishi Huang, Danlu Chen, Matteo Lo Preti +3Mechanism DesignContinuum Robot Control

    Advanced Robotics Centre (ARC) and with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS), 117608, Singapore. · Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), 138632, Singapore.

  16. Real-Time Shape Control of Multi-Segment Soft Robotic Arms Using Koopman Operators with Global and Local Observables

    Sep 2, 2026Jiahe Wang, Eron Ristich, Sultan Haidar Ali +5Model Predictive ControlFeedback Control

  17. Task-space model-based control of pneumatic soft actuators

    Aug 27, 2026Nithin S. Kumar, Joshua Gaston, D. Caleb Rucker +1Robotic ControlSoft Robotics

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235 · Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996

  18. Capstan-driven Continuum Surgical Robot: Design, Modeling, and Perception

    Aug 13, 2026Gang Zhang, Yufu Qiu, Junyan Yan +3Continuum Robot ControlRobot State Estimation

    Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering and T Stone Robotics Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong · School of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China · state Key Laboratory of Intelligent Manufacturing Equipment and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, China +1

  19. SoRoMoX: Fast, Differentiable, and Parallelizable Soft Robot Models

    Aug 6, 2026Maximilian Stölzle, Solange Gribonval, Daniel Feliu-Talegon +9Differentiable PhysicsContinuum Robot Control

    Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands · Italian Institute of Technology, Genoa, Italy · Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA +1

  20. Active Stiffness Control of a Supportive Continuum Robot

    Aug 4, 2026Rana Danesh, Farrokh Janabi-Sharifi, Farhad AghiliRobotic ControlRobust Control

    Department of Mechanical, Industrial, and Mechatronics Engineering, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, ON, Canada · Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada

  21. Input Shaping for Point-to-Point Motion with a Continuum Robot Arm

    Jul 27, 2026Rodolfo Hdz. Ibarra, Karan Baker, Parsa Molaei +2Robust ControlContinuum Robot Control

    Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Louisiana State University, LA 70803, USA

  22. Moving-Horizon Estimation and Nonlinear Model Predictive Control of Cable-Driven Soft Manipulators

    Jul 27, 2026Lingxiao Xun, Haihong Li, Gang ZhengNonlinear MPCMoving Horizon Estimation

  23. Eversion-based robots can enable safe access,steering and endoscopic imaging within the spinal subarachnoid space

    Jul 21, 2026Zicong Wu, Panagiotis Kalozoumis, S. M. Hadi Sadati +8Robot NavigationRobotic Insertion

    Department of Surgical & Interventional Engineering, School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, King’s College London, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom · Department of Computer Science & Biomedical Informatics, University of Thessaly, Lamia 35131, Greece · School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University London, London E1 4NS, United Kingdom +2

  24. Whole-Body Semantic-to-Actuation Grounding of Elephant-Inspired Soft-Trunk Motion via Lightweight Flow Matching

    Jul 13, 2026Tingcong Liu, Tongshun Chen, Siyi Ma +6Robot Motion GenerationContinuum Robot Control

  25. A Continual Learning Framework for Adaptive Control of Modular Soft Robots

    Jul 7, 2026Nilay Kushawaha, Muhammad Sunny Nazeer, Baljinder Singh Bal +2Continual Robot LearningContinuum Robot Control

    1The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, 56024, Pontedera, Italy · Department of Excellence in Robotics and AI, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, 56127, Pisa, Italy · Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 119077, Singapore +1

  26. Deep Reinforcement Learning-Enhanced Event-Triggered Data-Driven Predictive Control for a 3D Cable-Driven Soft Robotic Arm

    Jun 24, 2026Cheng Ouyang, Moeen Ul Islam, Kaixiang Zhang +3RL ControlRobot Trajectory Tracking

    Department of Agricultural & Biological Engineering, Mississippi State University, MS, USA · Department of Mechanical Engineering, Michigan State University, MI, USA · Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan State University, MI, USA

  27. Morphology-Specific Closed-Loop Control of Logarithmic-Spiral Continuum Arms via Online Jacobian Error Compensation

    Jun 24, 2026Partha Datta, Yi Jin, Wei Lin +1Robotic ControlRobot Trajectory Tracking

    Laboratory for Soft Machines and Electronics, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA · Department of Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA · Laboratory for Soft Machines and Electronics, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA +3

  28. PanoVine: Whole-Body Visuomotor Control for Soft Growing Vine Robot

    Jun 22, 2026Yimeng Qin, Xiaomeng Xu, William Heap +3Robot NavigationVisuomotor Policy Learning

    Stanford University

  29. Do Rigid-Body Simulators Dream of Soft Robots? Learning Contact-Rich Manipulation for Tendon-Driven Continuum Robots

    Jun 21, 2026Chengnan Shentu, Nicholas Baldassini, Tongjia Zheng +2Contact-Rich Robotic ManipulationRobotics Simulation

    University of Toronto, Canada

  30. Discrete Geometric Modeling and Extended State Estimation of Continuum Robots

    Jun 19, 2026Maximilian Herrmann, Leander Pfeiffer, Paul KotyczkaContinuum Robot ControlRobot State Estimation

    Technical University of Munich, TUM School of Engineering and Design, Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI), Chair of Automatic Control.