TY - GEN
T1 - Configuration tracking for soft continuum robotic arms using inverse dynamic control of a cosserat rod model
AU - Doroudchi, Azadeh
AU - Berman, Spring
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by Office of Naval Research (ONR) Award N00014-17-1-2117.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 IEEE.
PY - 2021/4/12
Y1 - 2021/4/12
N2 - Controlling the configuration of a soft continuum robot arm is challenging due to the hyper-redundant kinematics of such robots. We propose a new model-based, inverse dynamic control approach to this problem that is defined on the configuration state variables of the geometrically exact Cosserat rod model. Our approach is capable of controlling a soft continuum robot to track static or time-varying 3D configurations through bending, torsion, shear, and extension deformations. The controller has a decentralized structure, in which the gain matrices can be defined in terms of the physical and material properties of distinct cross-sections of the robot arm. This structure facilitates its implementation on continuum robot arms composed of independently-controllable segments that have local sensing and actuation. The controller is validated with numerical simulations in MATLAB with a hydrogel-based soft robot arm that can produce the four primary types of deformations. The simulated arm successfully tracks these configurations with average normalized root-mean-square errors (NRMSE) below 7% in all cases. To demonstrate the generality of the control approach, its performance is also validated on a larger simulated robot arm made of silicone.
AB - Controlling the configuration of a soft continuum robot arm is challenging due to the hyper-redundant kinematics of such robots. We propose a new model-based, inverse dynamic control approach to this problem that is defined on the configuration state variables of the geometrically exact Cosserat rod model. Our approach is capable of controlling a soft continuum robot to track static or time-varying 3D configurations through bending, torsion, shear, and extension deformations. The controller has a decentralized structure, in which the gain matrices can be defined in terms of the physical and material properties of distinct cross-sections of the robot arm. This structure facilitates its implementation on continuum robot arms composed of independently-controllable segments that have local sensing and actuation. The controller is validated with numerical simulations in MATLAB with a hydrogel-based soft robot arm that can produce the four primary types of deformations. The simulated arm successfully tracks these configurations with average normalized root-mean-square errors (NRMSE) below 7% in all cases. To demonstrate the generality of the control approach, its performance is also validated on a larger simulated robot arm made of silicone.
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U2 - 10.1109/RoboSoft51838.2021.9479223
DO - 10.1109/RoboSoft51838.2021.9479223
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85114204634
T3 - 2021 IEEE 4th International Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2021
SP - 207
EP - 214
BT - 2021 IEEE 4th International Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2021
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 4th IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics, RoboSoft 2021
Y2 - 12 April 2021 through 16 April 2021
ER -