ABSTRACT
There are a number of applications where it is desirable to monitor long, slender, highly flexible structures such as cables, tethers, long rods, or any such system which has one dimension’s length scale dimension substantially greater than any other dimension’s length scale. Such systems share the common kinematic behavior of arbitrarily large deformation (bending, twisting, rotating) while experiencing relatively small (linear, elastic) strain. Euler initiated the first formal study of such objects (the elastica), followed by more modern theories (Love 1909, Cosserat & Cosserat 2001, Bishop 1975, Reisner 1981, Langer & Singer 1996).
