Robust Fractional-Order Control Using a Decoupled Pitch and Roll Actuation Strategy for the I-Support Soft Robot

Jorge Muñoz, Francesco Piqué, Concepción A. Monje and Egidio Falotico
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Jorge Muñoz: Department of Systems Engineering and Automation, University Carlos III of Madrid, Avda. de la Universidad 30, 28911 Leganés, Madrid, Spain
Francesco Piqué: The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, 56025 Pontedera, Pisa, Italy
Concepción A. Monje: Department of Systems Engineering and Automation, University Carlos III of Madrid, Avda. de la Universidad 30, 28911 Leganés, Madrid, Spain
Egidio Falotico: The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, 56025 Pontedera, Pisa, Italy

Mathematics, 2021, vol. 9, issue 7, 1-16

Abstract: Tip control is a current open issue in soft robotics; therefore, it has received a good amount of attention in recent years. The desirable soft characteristics of these robots turn a well-solved problem in classic robotics, like the end-effector kinematics and dynamics, into a challenging problem. The high redundancy condition of these robots hinders classical solutions, resulting in controllers with very high computational costs. In this paper, a simplification is proposed in the actuation setup of the I-Support soft robot, allowing the use of simple strategies for tip inclination control. In order to verify the proposed approach, inclination step input and trajectory-tracking experiments were performed on a single module of the I-Support robot, resulting in zero output error in all cases, including those where the system was exposed to disturbances. The comparative results of the proposed controllers, a proportional integral derivative (PID) and a fractional order robust (FOPI) controller, validate the feasibility of the proposed approach, showing a clear advantage in the use of the fractional robust controller for the tip inclination control of the I-Support robot compared to the integer order controller.

Keywords: soft robotics; robust control; fractional calculus (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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