In this section
Soft and flexible robotic systems for affordable healthcare.
Our research investigates fundamental aspects of control of soft and flexible robots for surgery. These include harnessing the intrinsic compliance of soft robots, rejecting disturbances that characterise the surgical environment, and complying with stringent safety requirements. Our ambition is to provide affordable robotic solutions for a range of surgical applications, including endoscopy, percutaneous intervention, and multi-handed surgery.
Robotics for healthcare is one of the fastest growing segments in the global robotics market. However, conventional surgical robots are unaffordable in low-resource settings. Harnessing the potential of soft and flexible robots can contribute to making surgery safter, more accurate, and more accessible in low-middle income countries. These are pressing needs due to the aging population, and to the growing workforce crisis in the healthcare market.
Our work aims to improve accuracy, reduce the risk of injury, and reduce discomfort in percutaneous interventions such as biopsy, in diagnostic and interventional endoscopy, and in multi-handed surgery.
Dr Enrico Franco
Lecturer
@article{Franco:2021:10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2021.104250,
author = {Franco, E and Garriga, Casanovas A and Donaire, A},
doi = {10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2021.104250},
journal = {Mechanism and Machine Theory},
title = {Energy shaping control with integral action for soft continuum manipulators},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2021.104250},
volume = {158},
year = {2021}
}
TY - JOUR
AB - This paper investigates the control problem for soft continuum manipulators that operate on a plane and that are subject to unknown disturbances. In general, soft continuum manipulators have more degrees-of-freedom than control inputs and are characterised by nonlinear dynamics. Thus, achieving high position accuracy with these systems in the presence of disturbances is a challenging task. In this paper we present the design of a new partial-state feedback controller by using the port-Hamiltonian formulation and we develop a variation of the Integral Interconnection and Damping Assignment Passivity Based Control methodology for a class of soft continuum manipulators. The system dynamics on the bending plane is described by using a rigid-link underactuated model with elastic virtual joints. The proposed control law regulates the tip rotation to the desired value while compensating unmodelled disturbances and only depends on the tip rotation, which is measurable, hence it is implementable. The effectiveness of the controller is demonstrated with simulations and with experiments on a soft continuum manipulator prototype that employs pneumatic actuation.
AU - Franco,E
AU - Garriga,Casanovas A
AU - Donaire,A
DO - 10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2021.104250
PY - 2021///
SN - 0094-114X
TI - Energy shaping control with integral action for soft continuum manipulators
T2 - Mechanism and Machine Theory
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2021.104250
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/86582
VL - 158
ER -
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