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Interest in soft robotics has increased in recent years due to their potential in a myriad of applications. A wide variety of soft robots has emerged, including bio-inspired robotic swimmers such as jellyfish, rays, and robotic fish. However, the highly nonlinear fluid-structure interactions pose considerable challenges in the analysis, modeling, and feedback control of these soft robotic swimmers. In particular, developing models that are of high fidelity but are also amenable to control for such robots remains an open problem. In this work, we pro- pose a data-driven approach that exploits Koopman operators to obtain a linear representation of the soft swimmer dynamics. Specifically, two methodologies are explored for obtaining the basis functions of the the operator, one based on data-based derivatives estimated using high-gain observers, and the other based on the dynamics structure of a tail-actuated rigid-body robotic fish. The resulting approximate finite-dimensional operators are trained and evaluated using data from high-fidelity CFD simulations that incorporate fluid-structure interactions. Validation results demonstrate that, while both methods are promising in producing control-oriented models, the approach based on derivative estimates shows higher accuracy in state prediction.
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Model-Based Data-Driven System Identification and Controller Synthesis Framework for Precise Control of SISO and MISO HASEL-Powered Robotic Systems
Soft robots require a complimentary control architecture to support their inherent compliance and versatility. This work presents a framework to control soft-robotic systems systematically and effectively. The data-driven model-based approach developed here makes use of Dynamic Mode Decomposition with control (DMDc) and standard controller synthesis techniques. These methods are implemented on a robotic arm driven by an antagonist pair of Hydraulically Amplified Self-Healing Electrostatic (HASEL) actuators. The results demonstrate excellent tracking performance and disturbance rejection, achieving a steady state error under 0.25% in response to step inputs and maintaining a reference orientation within 0.5 degrees during loading and unloading. The procedure presented in this work can be extended to develop effective and robust controllers for other soft-actuated systems without knowledge of their dynamics a priori.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1830924
- PAR ID:
- 10355798
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- IEEE 5th International Conference on Soft Robotics
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 209 to 216
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/RoboSoft54090.2022.9762220
