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:2022:10.1002/rnc.6345,
author = {Franco, E and Astolfi, A},
doi = {10.1002/rnc.6345},
journal = {International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control},
pages = {10011--10028},
title = {Energy shaping control of underactuated mechanical systems with fluidic actuation},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/rnc.6345},
volume = {32},
year = {2022}
}
TY - JOUR
AB - Energy shaping is a remarkably effective control strategy which can be applied to a wide range of systems, including underactuated mechanical systems. However, research in this area has generally neglected actuator dynamics. While this is often appropriate, it might result in degraded performance in the case of fluidic actuation. In this work we present some new results on energy shaping control for underactuated mechanical systems for which the control action is mediated by a pressurized ideal fluid. In particular, we introduce an extended multi-step energy shaping and damping-assignment controller design procedure that builds upon the Interconnection-and-damping-assignment Passivity-based-control methodology in a modular fashion to account for the pressure dynamics of the fluid. Stability conditions are assessed with a Lyapunov approach, the effect of disturbances is discussed, and the case of redundant actuators is illustrated. The proposed approach is demonstrated with numerical simulations for a modified version of the classical ball-on-beam example, which employs two identical cylinders, either hydraulic or pneumatic, to actuate the beam.
AU - Franco,E
AU - Astolfi,A
DO - 10.1002/rnc.6345
EP - 10028
PY - 2022///
SN - 1049-8923
SP - 10011
TI - Energy shaping control of underactuated mechanical systems with fluidic actuation
T2 - International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/rnc.6345
UR - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/rnc.6345
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/99547
VL - 32
ER -
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