Design, fabrication and control of a compact soft manipulator

Official URL: https://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b2759787_(Table of contents)

The field of soft robotics has been receiving rising attention recently. Their intrinsically flexible and compliant nature allows soft robots to interact with most objects safely. However, interaction force control of soft actuators is essential to manipulate delicate objects with a specific force trajectory. This study presents the design, fabrication, and control of a compact soft manipulator. The soft manipulator consists of two parts; the outer part is a 3D printed flexible cage-like structure, and the inner part is a softer air chamber fabricated with molding polymers. The manipulator is attached to a step motor. The actuator is modeled with a Lagrangian dynamics-based model. The kinematic model of the actuator is based on the piecewise constant curvature model. The model is identified with real-time experiments using vision tracking. For interaction force control, three different control algorithms are presented. The first controller presented is based on the dynamic model of the system. The second controller is a PI controller with force feedback. The last controller presented is based on the system model assuming the system is quasi-static. The controllers are tested for interaction with different environments, and their results are shown with simulations. A comparison of the results for each controller is presented.