Kinematics Modeling of a Twisted and Coiled Polymer-Based Elastomer Soft Robot

Abstract

Twisted and coiled polymer (TCP) is increasingly used for soft robots due to its good compaction. However, the lack of kinematics model of elastomer soft robots limits precise control. For this purpose, a kinematic model is proposed in this work for TCP-based elastomer soft robots. This paper has two main contributions. First, constant curvature assumption (CCA), the foundation in soft robots is conceptualized and the pioneering proof is constituted. Second, an innovative but foundational soft robot kinematic model is established based on CCA called constant curvature elastomer model (CCE). Experiments are conducted to verify the proposed kinematic model, showing the validity of the model. A soft endoscope for flaw detection in pipelines is shown as a practical case of TCP-based soft robots.