Control-Oriented Modelling of a 3D-Printed Soft Actuator

A new type of soft actuator was developed by using hydrogel materials and three-dimensional (3D) printing technology, attracting the attention of researchers in the soft robotics field. Due to parametric uncertainties of such actuators, which originate in both a custom design nature of 3D printing as well as time and voltage variant characteristics of polyelectrolyte actuators, a sophisticated model to estimate their behaviour is required. This paper presents a practical modeling approach for the deflection of a 3D printed soft actuator. The suggested model is composed of electrical and mechanical dynamic models while the earlier version describes the actuator as a resistive-capacitive (RC) circuit. The latter model relates the ionic charges to the bending of an actuator. The experimental results were acquired to estimate the transfer function parameters of the developed model incorporating Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy sets. The proposed model was successful in estimating the end-point trajectory of the actuator, especially in response to a broad range of input voltage variation. With some modifications in the electromechanical aspects of the model, the proposed modelling method can be used with other 3D printed soft actuators.