Sensuator: A Hybrid Sensor–Actuator Approach to Soft Robotic Proprioception Using Recurrent Neural Networks

• Main Authors: Pornthep Preechayasomboon, Eric Rombokas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-02-01
• Series: Actuators
• Subjects: soft robotics; soft actuators; soft sensors; neural networks; deep learning; state estimation
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0825/10/2/30

Soft robotic actuators are now being used in practical applications; however, they are often limited to open-loop control that relies on the inherent compliance of the actuator. Achieving human-like manipulation and grasping with soft robotic actuators requires at least some form of sensing, which often comes at the cost of complex fabrication and purposefully built sensor structures. In this paper, we utilize the actuating fluid itself as a sensing medium to achieve high-fidelity proprioception in a soft actuator. As our sensors are somewhat unstructured, their readings are difficult to interpret using linear models. We therefore present a proof of concept of a method for deriving the pose of the soft actuator using recurrent neural networks. We present the experimental setup and our learned state estimator to show that our method is viable for achieving proprioception and is also robust to common sensor failures.