Piecewise Linear Strain Cosserat Model for Soft Slender Manipulator

Recently soft robotics has rapidly become a novel and promising area of research with many designs and applications due to their flexible and compliant structure. However, it is more difficult to derive the nonlinear dynamic model of such soft robots. The differential kinematics and dynamics of the soft manipulator can be formulated as a set of highly nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) via the classic Cosserat rod theory. In this work, we propose a discrete modeling technique named piecewise linear strain (PLS) to solve the PDEs of Cosserat-based models, based on which the associated analytic models are deduced. To validate the accuracy of the proposed Cosserat model, the static model of the conical cantilever rod under gravity as a simple example is simulated by using different discretization methods. Results indicate that PLS Cosserat model is comparable to the mechanical deformation behavior of real-world soft manipulator. Finally, a parameters identification scheme for this model is established, and the simulation as well as experimental validation demonstrate that using this method can identify the model physical parameters with high accuracy.