Model-Based Eversion Control of Soft Growing Robots With Pneumatic Actuation

This letter investigates the model based position control of soft growing robots with pneumatic actuation that extend according to the principle known as eversion. A dynamical model of the system which accounts for the energy of the ideal gas is presented by employing the port-Hamiltonian formulation. A new control law is constructed with an energy shaping approach. An adaptive observer is employed to compensate the effect of external forces, including that of gravity. Numerical simulations indicate that the proposed controller is superior to simpler energy shaping algorithms.