Abstract
Mitigating fatigue damage and improving grasping performance are the two main challenging tasks of applying the soft manipulator into industrial production. In this paper, the grasping position optimization-based control strategy is proposed for the soft manipulator and the corresponding characteristics are studied theoretically and experimentally. Specifically, based on the simulation, the resultant stress of step-function-type channels at the same pressure condition that was smallest compared with those of sine-function- and ramp-function-type channels, hence, a pneumatic network with step-function-type channels was selected for the proposed soft manipulator. Furthermore, in order to improve the grasping performance, the kinematics, mechanical, and grasping modeling for the soft manipulator were established, and a control strategy considering the genetic algorithm is introduced to detect the optimal position of the soft manipulator. The corresponding fabrication process and experiments were conducted to cross verify the results of the modeling and the control strategy. It is demonstrated that the internal pressure of the soft manipulator was reduced by 13.05% at the optimal position, which effectively helped mitigate the fatigue damage of the soft manipulator and prolonged the lifespan.
Highlights
With the development of robotic technology, there are many kinds of robots that have been applied to industrial applications such as carrying robots and assembling robots [1,2]
Genetic algorithm was introduced to solve the results of the optimal grasping position
In the process of solving using genetic algorithm, firstly, the genetic algorithm generates the first generation population randomly for coding, the genetic algorithm selects according to the fitness function and generates a new population through the crossover and mutation of different individual genes
Summary
With the development of robotic technology, there are many kinds of robots that have been applied to industrial applications such as carrying robots and assembling robots [1,2] Owing to their self-defects with high rigidity, the mechanical manipulator of traditional industrial robots is not suitable for complex and unstructured environments. Due to the requirements of industrial automation, an industrial soft robot manipulator is increasingly used in machinery manufacturing, metallurgy, and other fields [7]. It has a certain degree of automaticity, which can rely on power energy and control ability to achieve various industrial processing and manufacturing functions. In addition industrial soft robot manipulators can be applied in electronics, logistics, the chemical industry, and other industrial fields
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