Concentric Tube Robots (CTRs) have garnered significant interest within the surgical robotics community because of their flexibility, dexterity, and ease of miniaturization. However, mastering the unique kinematics and design principles of CTRs can be challenging for newcomers to the field. In this paper, we present an educational kit aimed at lowering the barriers to entry into concentric tube robot research. Our goal is to provide accessible learning resources for CTRs, bridging the knowledge gap between traditional robotic arms and these specialized devices. The proposed kit includes (1) An open-source design and assembly instructions for an economical (cost of materials $\approx$ 700 USD) modular CTR; (2) A set of self-study materials to learn the basics of CTR modeling and control, including automatically-graded assignments. To evaluate the effectiveness of our educational kit, we conducted a human subjects study involving first-year graduate students in engineering. Over a four-week period, participants -- none of whom had any prior knowledge of concentric tube robots -- successfully built their first CTR using the provided materials, implemented the robot's kinematics in MATLAB, and conducted a tip-tracking experiment with an optical tracking device. Our findings suggest that the proposed kit facilitates learning and hands-on experience with CTRs, and furthermore, it has the potential to help early-stage graduate students get rapidly started with CTR research. By disseminating these resources, we hope to broaden participation in concentric tube robot research to a wider a more diverse group of researchers.

翻译：同心管机器人因其灵活性、灵巧性和易于小型化的特点，在外科手术机器人领域引起了广泛关注。然而，对于该领域的新手而言，掌握CTR独特的运动学原理和设计原则可能具有挑战性。本文提出了一种旨在降低同心管机器人研究入门门槛的教育套件。我们的目标是为CTR提供易于获取的学习资源，以弥合传统机械臂与这些专用设备之间的知识差距。该套件包含：(1) 一套经济型（材料成本约700美元）模块化CTR的开源设计与组装说明；(2) 一套用于学习CTR建模与控制基础的自学材料，包括自动评分的练习题。为评估教育套件的有效性，我们开展了一项涉及工程学科一年级研究生的受试者研究。在为期四周的研究中，所有参与者——均无任何CTR相关知识背景——成功使用所提供的材料搭建了他们的首台CTR，在MATLAB中实现了机器人运动学模型，并利用光学追踪设备完成了末端轨迹追踪实验。研究结果表明，该套件能有效促进对CTR的学习与实践操作，并具备帮助早期研究生快速开展CTR研究的潜力。通过公开这些资源，我们希望吸引更广泛、更多样化的研究者群体参与到同心管机器人的研究中来。