Hansen, Harald Minde (CERN), Pettersen, Kristin Y. (Norwegian Univ. of Science and Tech.), Gravdahl, Jan Tommy (Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)), Di Castro, Mario (CERN)

Trajectory Tracking Control of a Tendon-Actuated Manipulator with Rolling Joints

Scheduled for presentation during the Regular Session "Soft Robotics" (WeBT5), Wednesday, July 16, 2025, 14:40−15:00, Room 109

Joint 10th IFAC Symposium on Mechatronic Systems and 14th Symposium on Robotics, July 15-18, 2025, Paris, France

This information is tentative and subject to change. Compiled on July 16, 2025

Abstract

This paper considers end effector trajectory tracking control of a tendon-actuated robot manipulator with rolling joints. This is a new type of robot which has been developed for inspection, maintenance and repair in big science facilities. To ensure real-time capability, an inverse kinematics controller is proposed. As needed for this type of controller, the inverse kinematics and differential inverse kinematics of this new robot are derived. A continuum robot approach is suggested to solve the inverse kinematics problem by assuming that the links of the robot constitute a curve of constant curvature. The joint angles are controlled with an adaptive gain super-twisting controller with equal references for joint angles in the same plane. As all the joints within the same plane are coupled, the manipulator is treated as a 2-degree-of-freedom (2-DOF) continuous joint to better reflect their inter-dependencies. Reference 3D trajectories are projected onto the workspace of the robot, ensuring feasible position and velocity references. A simulation study is conducted to validate the effectiveness and accuracy of the control algorithm for a circular trajectory tracking scenario.