Yixiao Pan - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
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Papers by Yixiao Pan
2016 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2016
Soft robotics carries with the promise of making robots as capable and adaptable as biological cr... more Soft robotics carries with the promise of making robots as capable and adaptable as biological creatures, but this will not be possible without the ability to perform selfsensing and control with precision and repeatability. In this paper, we seek to address this need with the development of a new pneumatically-actuated soft bending actuation module with integrated curvature sensing. We designed and fabricated two different versions of this module: one with a commercially available resistive flex sensor and the other with a magnetic curvature sensor of our own design, and used an external motion capture system to calibrate and verify the validity of these two modules. In addition, we used an iterative sliding mode controller to drive the modules through step curvature references to demonstrate the controllability of the modules as well as compare the usability of the two sensors. We found that the magnetic sensor returned noisy but accurate data, while the flex sensor was inaccurate and subject to drift but did not exhibit notable noise. Experimental results show that this phenomenon of drift from the flex sensor causes active feedback control of the bending actuator to exhibit significant positioning errors. This work demonstrates that our soft bending actuator can be controlled with repeatability and precision, and that our magnetic curvature sensor represents an improvement for use in closed-loop control of soft robotic devices.
Bioinspiration & biomimetics, Jan 3, 2015
Soft robotic snakes promise significant advantages in achieving traveling curvature waves with a ... more Soft robotic snakes promise significant advantages in achieving traveling curvature waves with a reduced number of active segments as well as allowing for safe and adaptive interaction with the environment and human users. However, current soft robot platforms suffer from a lack of accurate theoretical dynamic models and proprioceptive measurements, which impede advancements toward full autonomy. To address this gap, this paper details our recent results on the design, fabrication, and experimental evaluation of a new-generation pressure-operated soft robotic snake platform we call the WPI SRS, which employs custom magnetic sensors embedded in a flexible backbone to continuously monitor the curvature of each of its four bidirectional bending segments. In addition, we present a complete and accurate dynamic undulatory locomotion model that accounts for the propagation of frictional moments to describe linear and rotational motions of the SRS. Experimental studies indicate that on-boa...
2016 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2016
Soft robotics carries with the promise of making robots as capable and adaptable as biological cr... more Soft robotics carries with the promise of making robots as capable and adaptable as biological creatures, but this will not be possible without the ability to perform selfsensing and control with precision and repeatability. In this paper, we seek to address this need with the development of a new pneumatically-actuated soft bending actuation module with integrated curvature sensing. We designed and fabricated two different versions of this module: one with a commercially available resistive flex sensor and the other with a magnetic curvature sensor of our own design, and used an external motion capture system to calibrate and verify the validity of these two modules. In addition, we used an iterative sliding mode controller to drive the modules through step curvature references to demonstrate the controllability of the modules as well as compare the usability of the two sensors. We found that the magnetic sensor returned noisy but accurate data, while the flex sensor was inaccurate and subject to drift but did not exhibit notable noise. Experimental results show that this phenomenon of drift from the flex sensor causes active feedback control of the bending actuator to exhibit significant positioning errors. This work demonstrates that our soft bending actuator can be controlled with repeatability and precision, and that our magnetic curvature sensor represents an improvement for use in closed-loop control of soft robotic devices.
Bioinspiration & biomimetics, Jan 3, 2015
Soft robotic snakes promise significant advantages in achieving traveling curvature waves with a ... more Soft robotic snakes promise significant advantages in achieving traveling curvature waves with a reduced number of active segments as well as allowing for safe and adaptive interaction with the environment and human users. However, current soft robot platforms suffer from a lack of accurate theoretical dynamic models and proprioceptive measurements, which impede advancements toward full autonomy. To address this gap, this paper details our recent results on the design, fabrication, and experimental evaluation of a new-generation pressure-operated soft robotic snake platform we call the WPI SRS, which employs custom magnetic sensors embedded in a flexible backbone to continuously monitor the curvature of each of its four bidirectional bending segments. In addition, we present a complete and accurate dynamic undulatory locomotion model that accounts for the propagation of frictional moments to describe linear and rotational motions of the SRS. Experimental studies indicate that on-boa...