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:2023:10.1016/j.ejcon.2023.100828,
author = {Franco, E and Astolfi, A},
doi = {10.1016/j.ejcon.2023.100828},
journal = {European Journal of Control},
pages = {1--13},
title = {Energy shaping control of a class of underactuated mechanical systems with high-order actuator dynamics},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejcon.2023.100828},
volume = {72},
year = {2023}
}
TY - JOUR
AB - In this work we present some new results on energy shaping control for underactuated mechanical systems with high-order actuator dynamics. To this end, we propose an extension of the Interconnection and damping assignment Passivity based control methodology to account for actuator dynamics. This brings the following new results: i) a potential and kinetic energy shaping and damping assignment procedure that yields two alternative controllers; ii) a potential energy shaping and damping assignment procedure for a narrower class of underactuated mechanical systems. The proposed approach is illustrated with numerical simulations on three examples: an Acrobot system with a series elastic actuator; a soft continuum manipulator actuated by electroactive polymers; a two-mass-spring system actuated by a DC motor.
AU - Franco,E
AU - Astolfi,A
DO - 10.1016/j.ejcon.2023.100828
EP - 13
PY - 2023///
SN - 0947-3580
SP - 1
TI - Energy shaping control of a class of underactuated mechanical systems with high-order actuator dynamics
T2 - European Journal of Control
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejcon.2023.100828
UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0947358023000572?via%3Dihub
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/104469
VL - 72
ER -
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