Ablation Study of a Dynamic Model for a 3D-Printed Pneumatic Soft Robotic Arm

TY - JOUR

T1 - Ablation Study of a Dynamic Model for a 3D-Printed Pneumatic Soft Robotic Arm

AU - Alessi, Carlo

AU - Falotico, Egidio

AU - Lucantonio, Alessandro

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2013 IEEE.

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Ongoing advancements in the design and fabrication of soft robots are creating new challenges in modeling and control. This paper presents a dynamic Cosserat rod model for a single-section 3D-printed pneumatic soft robotic arm capable of combined stretching and bending. The model captures the manufacturing variability of the actuators by tuning the pressure-strain relation for each actuator. Moreover, it includes a simple model of the pneumatic actuation system that incorporates the transient response of proportional pressure-controlled electronic valves. The model was validated experimentally for several quasi-static and dynamic motion patterns with actuation frequencies ranging from 0.2 Hz to 20 Hz. The model reproduced the quasi-static experiments with an average tip error of 4.83% of the arm length. In dynamic conditions, the average tip error was 4.33% for stretching and bending motions, 5.64% for five motor babbling experiments, and 22.53% for three challenging sinusoidal patterns. An ablation study of the model components found that the most influential factors for the average accuracy were gravity and strain gains, followed by damping and pressure transient. This work could assist researchers in focusing on the most significant aspects for closing the real-to-sim gap when modeling pneumatic soft robotic arms.

AB - Ongoing advancements in the design and fabrication of soft robots are creating new challenges in modeling and control. This paper presents a dynamic Cosserat rod model for a single-section 3D-printed pneumatic soft robotic arm capable of combined stretching and bending. The model captures the manufacturing variability of the actuators by tuning the pressure-strain relation for each actuator. Moreover, it includes a simple model of the pneumatic actuation system that incorporates the transient response of proportional pressure-controlled electronic valves. The model was validated experimentally for several quasi-static and dynamic motion patterns with actuation frequencies ranging from 0.2 Hz to 20 Hz. The model reproduced the quasi-static experiments with an average tip error of 4.83% of the arm length. In dynamic conditions, the average tip error was 4.33% for stretching and bending motions, 5.64% for five motor babbling experiments, and 22.53% for three challenging sinusoidal patterns. An ablation study of the model components found that the most influential factors for the average accuracy were gravity and strain gains, followed by damping and pressure transient. This work could assist researchers in focusing on the most significant aspects for closing the real-to-sim gap when modeling pneumatic soft robotic arms.

KW - Cosserat rod

KW - pneumatic actuators

KW - Soft robot model

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85153367586

U2 - 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3266282

DO - 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3266282

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85153367586

SN - 2169-3536

VL - 11

SP - 37840

EP - 37853

JO - IEEE Access

JF - IEEE Access

ER -