Feedback Control of Soft Robot Actuators via Commercial Flex Bend Sensors
Feedback Control of Soft Robot Actuators via Commercial Flex Bend Sensors
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DOI：
10.1109/tmech.2017.2699677
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发表时间：
2017-08-01
影响因子：
6.4
通讯作者：
Menciassi, Arianna
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Gerboni, Giada;Diodato, Alessandro;Menciassi, Arianna
软机器人是一个新兴领域，它利用合规材料并使用非标准执行器。柔性流体致动器 (FFA) 利用流体压力使弹性体结构产生高变形。然而，由于缺乏可以集成到高度可变形执行器结构上的稳健、可靠且廉价的传感器，涉及成本非常低的材料和制造，此类执行器的闭环控制仍然非常具有挑战性。本文提出了一种使用商用柔性弯曲传感器实现基于 FFA 的软机器人弯曲模块的反馈控制的系统方法。弯曲传感器检测一个方向的模块曲率，其响应由板载微控制器处理并发送到中央控制系统。这种传感器集成可以实现模块化机器人架构的闭环控制，通常用于软机器人技术。与软模块集成后，传感器响应将通过使用地面实况电磁跟踪系统进行校准，以便表征其与相关 FFA 结合时的行为。设计了使用低通滤波器和比例积分控制器的反馈控制，并用于评估集成模块的动态响应和位置精度。通过这种闭环控制，模块尖端的定位精度小于1毫米，这可以被认为是软体机器人领域的相关成果。
Soft robotics is an emerging field that takes advantage of compliant materials and makes use of nonstandard actuators. Flexible fluid actuators (FFAs) use fluid pressure to produce high deformation of elastomeric-based structures. However, closed-loop control of such actuators is still very challenging due to the lack of robust, reliable, and inexpensive sensors that can be integrated onto highly deformable actuator structures, involving very low cost materials and manufacturing. This paper presents a systematic approach to implement the feedback control of FFA-based soft robotic bending modules by using commercial flex bend sensors. A flex bend sensor detects the module curvature in one direction, and its response is processed by an on board microcontroller and sent to the central control system. Such sensor integration enables the closed-loop control of modular robotic architectures, often used in soft robotics. Once integrated with the soft module, the sensor response was calibrated by the use of a ground truth electro-magnetic tracking system in order to characterize its behavior when combined with the relative FFA. A feedback control using a low-pass filter and a proportional-integral controller was designed and used to evaluate the dynamic response and the position accuracy of the integrated module. With such closed-loop control, the module tip is positioned with less than 1 mm accuracy, which can be considered a relevant result in the soft robotics field.