4 research outputs found
Energy Shaping Control of a CyberOctopus Soft Arm
This paper entails application of the energy shaping methodology to control a
flexible, elastic Cosserat rod model. Recent interest in such continuum models
stems from applications in soft robotics, and from the growing recognition of
the role of mechanics and embodiment in biological control strategies:
octopuses are often regarded as iconic examples of this interplay. Here, the
dynamics of the Cosserat rod, modeling a single octopus arm, are treated as a
Hamiltonian system and the internal muscle actuators are modeled as distributed
forces and couples. The proposed energy shaping control design procedure
involves two steps: (1) a potential energy is designed such that its minimizer
is the desired equilibrium configuration; (2) an energy shaping control law is
implemented to reach the desired equilibrium. By interpreting the controlled
Hamiltonian as a Lyapunov function, asymptotic stability of the equilibrium
configuration is deduced. The energy shaping control law is shown to require
only the deformations of the equilibrium configuration. A forward-backward
algorithm is proposed to compute these deformations in an online iterative
manner. The overall control design methodology is implemented and demonstrated
in a dynamic simulation environment. Results of several bio-inspired numerical
experiments involving the control of octopus arms are reported