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:2022:10.1109/TMECH.2021.3063121,
author = {Franco, E and Garriga, Casanovas A and Tang, J and Rodriguez, y Baena F and Astolfi, A},
doi = {10.1109/TMECH.2021.3063121},
journal = {IEEE-ASME Transactions on Mechatronics},
pages = {280--291},
title = {Adaptive energy shaping control of a class of nonlinear soft continuum manipulators},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TMECH.2021.3063121},
volume = {27},
year = {2022}
}
TY - JOUR
AB - Soft continuum manipulators are characterized by low stiffness which allows safe operation in unstructured environments but introduces under-actuation. In addition, soft materials such as silicone rubber, which are commonly used for soft manipulators, are characterized by nonlinear stiffness, while pneumatic actuation can result in nonlinear damping. Consequently, achieving accurate control of these systems in the presence of disturbances is a challenging task. This paper investigates the model-based adaptive control for soft continuum manipulators that have nonlinear uniform stiffness and nonlinear damping, that bend under the effect of internal pressure, and that are subject to time-varying disturbances. A rigid-link model with virtual elastic joints is employed for control purposes within the port-Hamiltonian framework. The effects of disturbances and of model uncertainties are estimated adaptively. A nonlinear controller that regulates the tip orientation of the manipulator and that compensates the effects of disturbances and of model uncertainties is then constructed by using an energy shaping passivity-based approach. Stability conditions are discussed highlighting the beneficial role of nonlinear damping. The effectiveness of the controller is assessed with simulations and with experiments on a soft continuum manipulator prototype.
AU - Franco,E
AU - Garriga,Casanovas A
AU - Tang,J
AU - Rodriguez,y Baena F
AU - Astolfi,A
DO - 10.1109/TMECH.2021.3063121
EP - 291
PY - 2022///
SN - 1083-4435
SP - 280
TI - Adaptive energy shaping control of a class of nonlinear soft continuum manipulators
T2 - IEEE-ASME Transactions on Mechatronics
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TMECH.2021.3063121
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/88388
VL - 27
ER -
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