Continuum Robot Proprioception: The Ionic Liquid Approach

David Alatorre, Dragos Axinte, Amir Rabani

Research output: Journal PublicationArticlepeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Slender continuum robots are uniquely placed to address inspection and intervention tasks in difficult-to-access environments. Tasks such as minimally invasive surgery and in situ maintenance of complex machinery require dexterous robots with accurate motion control, and benefit from instruments with small diameters and large internal passages for services. Intrinsic proprioception, or built-in position sensory feedback, has been described in prior work on continuum and soft robots but seldom employed for motion closed-loop control. In this research article, we present a novel tubular resistive stretch sensor with ionic liquid conductors to enable closed-loop position control of low-cost, 3-D printed continuum robots. We describe a methodology for sensor characterization and calibration drawing from a model of their behavior under strain, allowing us to apply four stretch sensors as proprioceptive feedback for motion control of a four-axis slender continuum manipulator. We demonstrate a substantial (approximately 65%) improvement in position control accuracy and repeatability over open-loop methods and show a promising step toward low-cost, scalable position feedback for slender continuum robots.

Original languageEnglish
JournalIEEE Transactions on Robotics
Early online date7 Jun 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished Online - 7 Jun 2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Dexterous manipulation
  • field robots
  • Liquids
  • medical robots and systems
  • Robot sensing systems
  • robotics in hazardous fields
  • Robots
  • Sensors
  • Strain
  • Temperature measurement
  • Temperature sensors

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Continuum Robot Proprioception: The Ionic Liquid Approach'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this