Continuum robots have become more popular recently due to their scalable dexterity and mobility. However, they may suffer from issues like insufficient stiffness because they are designed to promote their flexibility. To address this issue and further improve their performance in all different application scenarios, stiffness flexibility is essential for this type of robot. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate techniques into both their mechanical structure and actuation approaches when developing continuum robots. To this end, it is crucial to explore how different stiffening approaches can be applied to various types of continuum robots across diverse applications. The primary goal of this survey paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art research on stiffening techniques for continuum robots over the last two decades. We thoroughly analyse key techniques related to stiffness tunability mechanisms and stiffening methods. Additionally, we categorise these stiffening approaches on the basis of their properties and seek to understand the factors that limit their performance. This survey paper aims to assist robotic engineers in selecting appropriate stiffening techniques when designing continuum robots and serve as a basis for developing potential next-generation stiffening mechanisms.

中文翻译：

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连续体机器人的加固方法概述


连续体机器人由于其可扩展的灵活性和移动性而最近变得越来越流行。然而，它们可能会遇到刚度不足等问题，因为它们的设计目的是提高灵活性。为了解决这个问题并进一步提高其在所有不同应用场景中的性能，刚度灵活性对于此类机器人至关重要。因此，在开发连续体机器人时，有必要将技术集成到其机械结构和驱动方法中。为此，探索如何将不同的加固方法应用于不同应用的各种类型的连续体机器人至关重要。本调查论文的主要目标是对过去二十年连续体机器人加固技术的最新研究进行全面回顾。我们深入分析了与刚度可调机制和刚化方法相关的关键技术。此外，我们根据这些加固方法的特性对其进行分类，并试图了解限制其性能的因素。本调查论文旨在帮助机器人工程师在设计连续体机器人时选择适当的加固技术，并作为开发潜在的下一代加固机制的基础。