Energy-shaping control of soft continuum manipulators with in-plane disturbances. (January 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Franco, Enrico; Garriga-Casanovas, Arnau
• Other Names: Della Santina Cosimo guest-editor.; Katzschmann Robert K. guest-editor.; Bicchi Antonio guest-editor.; Rus Daniela guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: International journal of robotics research. Volume 40:Number 1(2021)
• Page Start: 236
• Page End: 255
• Publication Date: 2021-01
• Subjects: Soft continuum manipulators -- underactuated mechanical systems -- energy shaping -- nonlinear control -- adaptive control; Robots -- Periodicals; Robots, Industrial -- Periodicals; 629.89205
• DOI: 10.1177/0278364920907679
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0278-3649

Abstract

Soft continuum manipulators offer levels of compliance and inherent safety that can render them a superior alternative to conventional rigid robots for a variety of tasks, such as medical interventions or human–robot interaction. However, the ability of soft continuum manipulators to compensate for external disturbances needs to be further enhanced to meet the stringent requirements of many practical applications. In this paper, we investigate the control problem for soft continuum manipulators that consist of one inextensible segment of constant section, which bends under the effect of the internal pressure and is subject to unknown disturbances acting in the plane of bending. A rigid-link model of the manipulator with a single input pressure is employed for control purposes and an energy-shaping approach is proposed to derive the control law. A method for the adaptive estimation of disturbances is detailed and a disturbance compensation strategy is proposed. Finally, the effectiveness of the controller is demonstrated with simulations and with experiments on an inextensible soft continuum manipulator that employs pneumatic actuation.