A universal actuator for driving a continuum arm robot having a plurality of tendons includes; a housing; a power supply pack with a power source; a control pack with an industrial programmable logic controller, a screen, a rotary encoder linked to an analogue input device, a digital output device, a plurality of electronic control cards that connect the programmable logic controller to a user input device, the rotary encoder and an actuator pack for controlling the motion of the continuum arm robot, the programmable logic controller or the screen having a computer program to allow for set up and control of the continuum arm robot.