A Dynamic Modeling Method for Soft Pneumatic Robotic Arms Considering Both Geometric Nonlinearity and Visco-Hyperelasticity

This work proposes a new dynamic modeling approach that integrates the principle of virtual power and a spring-damper-fluid equivalent method. It is able to simultaneously consider the geometric and material nonlinearity including hyperelasticity and viscoelasticity of the soft robotic arm. Meanwhile, the nonuniform deformation of the soft arm wall can be introduced into the model based on the equivalent model. A general prototype of soft robotic arms is fabricated and validation experiments of three pneumatic actuation modes are carried out. A maximum position error of 3.64mm at the end of the soft arm is obtained with an eight-segment theoretical model for the 280mm long and 30mm thick prototype in an approximate step actuation test with a maximum pneumatic pressure of 11.5kPa. The comparisons between the theoretical prediction and experimental results demonstrate a high accuracy of the proposed modeling method. Besides, simulations of dynamic motions under in-plane and out-of-plane actuation are carried out respectively, illustrating that the proposed method has the ability to describe a variety of actuation forms. The proposed dynamic modeling method provides a new way for modeling the soft robotic arms and has guiding significance for the design and control of soft robotic arms.