Abstract
Continuum robots, particularly concentric tube robots (CTR), have shown their abilities to reach confined zones through their miniaturization and flexibility for applications in minimally invasive surgery. Possessing the dimensions of a catheter and the mobility and controllability of rigid robots, the scope of their potential applications is broad. This article presents the major advances in design, the evolution of modeling with regard to physical phenomena, path planning, and several control laws for CTR. The contributions of the two research teams working on this topic in France are also presented.