Kinematic Control of Continuum Manipulators Using a Fuzzy-Model-Based Approach

Continuum manipulators are a rapidly emerging class of robots. However, due to the complexity of their mathematical models and modeling inaccuracies, the development of effective control systems is a particularly challenging task. This paper presents the first attempt on kinematic control of continuum manipulators using a fuzzy-model-based approach. A fuzzy controller is proposed for autonomous execution of end-effector trajectory tracking tasks for a continuum manipulator. Particularly, membership functions are employed to combine the linearized state-space models, to achieve, overall, a fuzzy model. The fuzzy model can help design the fuzzy controller; in our approach, this process is supported by a thorough stability analysis. This control methodology enables a solution with low computational requirements to this motion control problem - there is no need to continuously update the Jacobian of the continuum manipulator. The superior performance of this controller is validated in MATLAB simulations and compared with those of classical controllers found in the literature. The experiments on a rapid-prototyped continuum manipulator further verify the feasibility and the advantages of this fuzzy controller in the presence of modeling discrepancies and hardware inaccuracies.