The Soft Inverted Pendulum with Affine Curvature

We introduce here a novel under-actuated mechanical system motivated by recent advances in soft robotics. We derive its governing equations, discuss its properties, and consider a solution for the stabilization of its unstable equilibrium. The results we propose here are intended as a first step towards dealing with the much more challenging general problem of controlling full fledged soft robots subject to non negligible external forces and operating at high accelerations.