Model-free motion control of continuum robots based on a zeroing neurodynamic approach.

Journal: Neural networks : the official journal of the International Neural Network Society
Published Date:

Abstract

As a result of inherent flexibility and structural compliance, continuum robots have great potential in practical applications and are attracting more and more attentions. However, these characteristics make it difficult to acquire the accurate kinematics of continuum robots due to uncertainties, deformation and external loads. This paper introduces a method based on a zeroing neurodynamic approach to solve the trajectory tracking problem of continuum robots. The proposed method can achieve the control of a bellows-driven continuum robot just relying on the actuator input and sensory output information, without knowing any information of the kinematic model. This approach reduces the computational load and can guarantee the real time control. The convergence, stability, and robustness of the proposed approach are proved by theoretical analyses. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by simulation studies including tracking performance, comparisons with other three methods, and robustness tests.

Authors

  • Ning Tan
    Department of Cardiology, Guangdong Cardiovascular Institute, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Coronary Heart Disease Prevention, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangdong Academic of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
  • Peng Yu
    College of Life Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, 730070, Gansu, People's Republic of China.
  • Xinyu Zhang
    Wenzhou Medical University Renji College, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China.
  • Tao Wang
    Department of Urology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.