A holistic framework for the design, modeling, and control of soft pneumatic robot systems

Unlike conventional rigid-link robots, soft robots predominantly consist of soft materials, i. e. materials whose Young's modulus is of the order of that of soft biological tissues. Soft robots are naturally compliant and possess a virtually infinite number of degrees of freedom, which enables them to operate in unstructured environments, squeeze through confined orifices or perform whole-arm soft manipulation. Owing to these properties, soft robots are likely to take over tasks that are currently beyond the scope of conventional rigid-link robots and may one day even bridge the gap between robots and humans in our society. This dissertation contributes to the advancement of the field by introducing a coherent methodology for the design, modeling, and closed-loop control of soft robots. The methodology is envisioned to provide the theoretical basis for the development of simulation tools that can cause a shift in the design flow from an experimentally driven approach to a well-defined engineering workflow. Along with the theoretical foundations of the methodology, a software framework is presented, which enables the computer-aided design and modeling of a broad spectrum of soft robot morphologies. The framework effectively combines FE models with modules for design optimization, model learning, and kinematic control and integrates them into a common software tool.