Curve Parametric Modeling of Planar Soft Robots

Abstract

Soft robots, due to their flexibility, adaptability, and gentle handling over rigid robots, have shown better potential in numerous applications requiring operating in constrained spaces. Most of the soft robotic prototypes are of a linear form that can be modeled as a curve in space and are found in manipulators and limbs of locomoting robots. Planar soft robots have been proposed recently that are modeled as a surface and deform in 3D. Research on planar soft robots has been less extensive due to the challenges associated with modeling surface deformations efficiently. We present a curve-parametric approach for the deformation modeling of planar soft robot modules. Along with the Bezier patch method to approximate the surface at 30 Hz. Experimental evaluations on a prototype were developed and tested to validate that the proposed model can reasonably approximate the planar robot boundaries and the surface derived from it.