Since the shape of industrial endoscopes is passively altered according to the contact around it, manual inspection approaches of aeroengines through the inspection ports have unreachable areas, and it's difficult to traverse multistage blades and inspect them simultaneously, which requires engine disassembly or the cooperation of multiple operators, resulting in efficiency decline and increased costs. To this end, this paper proposes a novel continuum manipulator with push-pull multisection structure which provides a potential solution for the disadvantages mentioned above due to its higher flexibility, passability, and controllability in confined spaces. The ultra-slender design combined with a tendon-driven mechanism makes the manipulator acquire enough workspace and more flexible postures while maintaining a light weight. Considering the coupling between the tendons in multisection, a innovative kinematics decoupling control method is implemented, which can realize real-time control in the case of limited computational resources. A prototype is built to validate the capabilities of mechatronic design and the performance of the control algorithm. The experimental results demonstrate the advantages of our continuum manipulator in the in-situ inspection of aeroengines' multistage blades, which has the potential to be a replacement solution for industrial endoscopes.

翻译：由于工业内窥镜的形状是根据其周围接触情况被动改变的，通过检测端口对航空发动机进行手动检测的方法存在不可达区域，且难以同时穿越多级叶片并进行检测，这需要拆卸发动机或多名操作人员协同作业，导致效率下降和成本增加。为此，本文提出一种具有推拉多段结构的新型连续体机械臂，该结构凭借其在受限空间中更高的灵活性、通过性和可控性，为上述缺陷提供了潜在的解决方案。超细长设计与腱驱动机制相结合，使机械臂在保持轻量化的同时获得足够的工作空间和更灵活的位姿。考虑到多段间腱的耦合作用，本文实现了一种创新的运动学解耦控制方法，该方法可在计算资源有限的情况下实现实时控制。通过搭建样机验证了机电一体化设计能力与控制算法的性能。实验结果表明，我们的连续体机械臂在航空发动机多级叶片的原位检测中具有显著优势，有望成为工业内窥镜的替代解决方案。