Dynamics Modeling and Verification of Parallel Extensible Soft Robot Based on Cosserat Rod Theory

Abstract

Soft robots show important application prospects because of their infinite degree of freedom, flexibility and dexterity, among which parallel extensible soft robots can elongate and bend at the same time, and are capable of crawling, grasping and manipulation. However, the constraints between pneumatic soft actuators (PSAs) and the coupling of elongation and bending make it harder to build dynamic model than fixed-length soft robots. In this paper, we propose a dynamic modeling method capable of describing soft robots that can elongate and bend at the same time. First, we give the characteristics of parallel extensible soft robot. Then we deduce the dynamic model of PSA. By developing the interactive constraint topological structure (ICTS), we further deduce the complete dynamic model of parallel extensible soft robot. Finally, we carry out simulation experiments and it proves that the established model can well describe the multi-degree-of- freedom motion and the constraint relations of parallel PSAs.