Compensating for Material Deformation in Foldable Robots via Deep Learning - A Case Study

Mohammad Sharifzadeh, Yuhao Jiang, Amir Salimi Lafmejani, Daniel M. Aukes

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Foldable, origami-inspired, and laminate mechanisms are highly susceptible to deformation under external loading, which can lead to position or orientation errors if idealized kinematic models are used. According to dimensional scaling laws, laminate devices can often be treated as rigid bodies at millimeter and smaller scale deformations. However, foldable mechanisms enter the territory of soft robots at larger scales. In this paper, we show the effect of external loads applied to a laminate, 2-DOF parallel robot and the corresponding errors during a pointing task. We then present two control methods, based on deep learning, that compensates for errors caused by the material deformation in foldable robots. For each proposed control method, a Deep Neural Network (DeepNN) is trained to learn the end-effector's deformation model in no-load and loaded conditions. A DeepNN called an updating network is trained and applied in real-time using measured sensor data, in order to transfer updated weights into another DeepNN called the target network. The target network generates control signals with the aim of compensating for the end-effector's error in tracking a desired trajectory. We evaluate our proposed control methods when applied to a laminate robotic end-effector under different external loading conditions in tracking spiral paths. The experimental results show the effectiveness of our proposed control methods in compensating for material deformation in foldable robots.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication2022 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2022
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages5184-5190
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)9781728196817
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022
Externally publishedYes
Event39th IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2022 - Philadelphia, United States
Duration: May 23 2022May 27 2022

Publication series

NameProceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
ISSN (Print)1050-4729

Conference

Conference39th IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2022
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityPhiladelphia
Period5/23/225/27/22

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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