Abstract
Compared with rigid robots, soft robots have better adaptability to the environment because of their pliability. However, due to the lower structural stiffness of the soft manipulator, the posture of the manipulator is usually decided by the weight and the external load under operating conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct dynamics modeling and movement analysis of the soft manipulator. In this paper, a fabric reinforced soft manipulator driven by a water hydraulic system is firstly proposed, and the dynamics of both the soft manipulator and hydraulic system are considered. Specifically, a dynamic model of the soft manipulator is established based on an improved Newton–Euler iterative method, which comprehensively considers the influence of inertial force, elastic force, damping force, as well as combined bending and torsion moments. The dynamics of the water hydraulic system consider the effects of cylinder inertia, friction, and water response. Finally, the accuracy of the proposed dynamic model is verified by comparing the simulation results with the experimental data about the steady and dynamic characteristics of the soft manipulator under various conditions. The results show that the maximum sectional error is about 0.0245 m and that the maximum cumulative error is 0.042 m, which validate the effectiveness of the proposed model.
Highlights
Academic Editor: Thanh Nho DoIn recent years, soft robots have gradually become a research hotspot in the field of robotics [1,2,3,4,5]
In order to actuate each soft unit of the soft manipulator independently, a water hydraulic system was developed
When the torque of the first, second and third actuators of the water hydraulic system is 0 N·m, 2.5 N·m, and 2.5 N·m, the soft manipulator reaches the x-axis positive bending limit, its bending angle can reach 165.7◦, the axis arc length is 0.401 m, and the radius of the curvature is
Summary
Soft robots have gradually become a research hotspot in the field of robotics [1,2,3,4,5]. The dynamic model in the field of the soft manipulator mainly adopts the Euler—Lagrange method [24,25,26], Kane method [27], and dynamics analysis method based on the Cosserat theory [28,29,30]. In order to expand the dynamics research on the soft manipulator, this paper establishes a dynamic model of the soft manipulator based on the Newton—Euler method. In this model, the influences of environmental resistance, inertial and elastic forces, damping forces, and combined moments of bending and torsion are considered comprehensively.
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