Abstract: A wire-driven planar continuum manipulator is developed, and a mechanics model for the notched hyper-redundant manipulator is presented.Based on the idea of FEM (finite element method), the mechanics model of the proposed hyper-redundant continuum manipulator is divided into several mechanics models of sub-deformation units, which results in sub-mechanics modeling.In the proposed sub-deformation unit mechanics model based on the Timoshenko beam element, the coupling between sub-deformation units of the whole manipulator during deformation is also included.In addition, the lateral force caused by the interface contact between the wire and the continuum manipulator is considered, and its influence on the flexible manipulator shape is investigated.With the proposed mechanics model, the joint angles in the joint space and each sub-joint space can be mapped to the driving force.Finally, the proposed mechanics model is experimentally validated on two continuum manipulators with different notches, which illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed mechanics model.