Tendon-Driven Actuation

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Overview

Tendon-driven actuation studies how routed cables transmit motor forces to robot joints and flexible bodies, enabling lightweight hands, continuum robots, catheters, and wearable exoskeletons. Researchers combine mechanical models of tendon routing, friction, elasticity, and backbone deformation with data-driven dynamics models, force estimation, and controllers such as model-predictive control and reinforcement learning. Evaluation spans hand grasping and fingertip-force tests, continuum-robot shape tracking and collision avoidance, catheter navigation, and exoskeleton tasks. A central challenge is achieving reliable force and shape control despite friction, hysteresis, changing cable paths, and loads, while balancing compliance and dexterity against strength, sensing, and model complexity.

Latest papers

CardsList

42 papers6 papers in the last four weeks, down 25% on the four weeks before. 0.0% of all new papers.

  1. Design, Modelling and Experimental Evaluation of a Tendon-driven Wrist Abduction-Adduction Mechanism for an upper limb exoskeleton

    Apr 21, 2026Juwairiya S. Khan, Mostafa Mohammadi, John Rasmussen +1Assistive RoboticsTendon-Driven Actuation

    Neurorehabilitation Robotics and Engineering, Center for Rehabilitation Robotics, Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg East, Denmark

  2. MM-Hand: A 21-DOF Multi-modal Modular Dexterous Robotic Hand with Remote Actuation

    Apr 19, 2026Zhuoheng Li, Qingquan Lin, Checheng Yu +5Robotic Hand DesignDexterous Manipulation

    The University of Hong Kong · City University of Hong Kong · XiFengGu Ltd.

  3. Time-Division Multiplexing Actuation in Tendon-Driven Arms: Lightweight Design and Fault Tolerance

    Apr 18, 2026Shoujie Li, Changqing Guo, Jianle Xu +4Robotic ControlRobotics

    Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China · School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639956, Singapore · Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

  4. Actuation space reduction to facilitate insightful shape matching in a novel reconfigurable tendon driven continuum manipulator

    Apr 14, 2026Sabyasachi Dash, John Golden, Girish KrishnanTendon-Driven ActuationContinuum Robot Control

    Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign · Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

  5. Sim-to-Real Transfer for Muscle-Actuated Robots via Generalized Actuator Networks

    Apr 10, 2026Jan Schneider, Mridul Mahajan, Le Chen +4Sim-to-Real TransferRobotics

    Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Tübingen · Boston University · ELLIS Institute Tübingen +4

  6. SoftHand Model-W: A 3D-Printed, Anthropomorphic, Underactuated Robot Hand with Integrated Wrist and Carpal Tunnel

    Apr 1, 2026Dhillon B. Merritt, Christopher J. Ford, Haoran Li +4Robotic Hand DesignRobotic Manipulation

    All authors are with the School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology, and Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1UB, U.K.

  7. PHANTOM Hand

    Mar 24, 2026Teng Yan, Jiongxu Chen, Qixiang Hua +4Robotic Hand DesignRobotic Manipulation

    The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)

  8. Tendon-Actuated Robots with a Tapered, Flexible Polymer Backbone: Design, Fabrication, and Modeling

    Mar 19, 2026Harald Minde Hansen, Nandita Gallacher, Nicholas B. Andrews +3Continuum Robot ControlTendon-Driven Actuation

    Mechatronics, Robotics and Operation Section, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Meyrin, Switzerland · Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA · Department of Engineering Cybernetics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway

  9. CRAFT: A Tendon-Driven Hand with Hybrid Hard-Soft Compliance

    Mar 12, 2026Leo Lin, Shivansh Patel, Jay Moon +2Robotic Hand DesignRobotic Grasping

    University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign · UC Irvine

  10. Tendon Force Modeling for Sim2Real Transfer of Reinforcement Learning Policies for Tendon-Driven Robots

    Mar 4, 2026Valentin Yuryev, Josie HughesSim-to-Real TransferTendon-Driven Actuation

    These authors are with with CREATE Lab, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland.

  11. A Novel Modular Cable-Driven Soft Robotic Arm with Multi-Segment Reconfigurability

    Mar 2, 2026Moeen Ul Islam, Cheng Ouyang, Xinda Qi +3Soft RoboticsModular Robotics

    Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Mississippi State University, MS, USA · Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan State University, MI, USA · Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Dallas, Texas A&M University, TX, USA

  12. Tendon-Driven Reciprocating and Non-Reciprocating Motion via Snapping Metabeams

    Feb 20, 2026Mohsen Jafarpour, Ayberk Yüksek, Shahab Eshghi +2Soft RoboticsTendon-Driven Actuation

    Department of Functional Morphology and Biomechanics, Zoological Institute, Kiel University, 24118 Kiel, Germany