Stereo Vision-Based Control of Continuum Robots and Hyper-Redundant Robots for Endoscopy.

BACKGROUND: Traditional control of continuum robots (CRs) and hyper-redundant robots (HRRs) typically relies on large, costly consoles to capture physician input. This raises the question of whether such systems can be simplified without losing functionality. METHODS: A low-cost, real-time control system was developed for a 7-DoF CR/HRR using a handheld, pencil-like wireless handle equipped with only two passive optical markers. The handle directly controls 5 DoF, while the remaining 2 DoF are resolved through null-space projection for length minimisation and a roll-compensation method that maintains horizontal endoscopic image alignment. RESULTS: The system enabled effective real-time control of a redundant 7-DoF CR/HRR using only two tracked markers. The supplementary constraints successfully managed redundancy, minimised robot length, and preserved horizontal imaging. CONCLUSIONS: This work presents a compact two-marker input device, a null-space-based length-minimisation strategy, and a roll-compensation method for endoscopic imaging.