Morasso Pietro
Robotic, Brain, and Cognitive Sciences Research Unit, Italian Institute of Technology, Center for Human Technologies, Via Enrico Melen 83, Bldg B, 16152 Genoa, Italy.
Biomimetics (Basel). 2025 Jan 2;10(1):21. doi: 10.3390/biomimetics10010021.
Trunk-like robots have attracted a lot of attention in the community of researchers interested in the general field of bio-inspired soft robotics, because trunk-like soft arms may offer high dexterity and adaptability very similar to elephants and potentially quite superior to traditional articulated manipulators. In view of the practical applications, the integration of a soft hydrostatic segment with a hard-articulated segment, i.e., a hybrid kinematic structure similar to the elephant's body, is probably the best design framework. It is proposed that this integration should occur at the conceptual/cognitive level before being implemented in specific soft technologies, including the related control paradigms. The proposed modeling approach is based on the passive motion paradigm (PMP), originally conceived for addressing the degrees of freedom problem of highly redundant, articulated structures. It is shown that this approach can be naturally extended from highly redundant to hyper-redundant structures, including hybrid structures that include a hard and a soft component. The PMP model is force-based, not motion-based, and it is characterized by two main computational modules: the Jacobian matrix of the hybrid kinematic chain and a compliance matrix that maps generalized force fields into coordinated gestures of the whole-body model. It is shown how the modulation of the compliance matrix can be used for the synergy formation process, which coordinates the hyper-redundant nature of the hybrid body model and, at the same time, for the preparation of the trunk tip in view of a stable physical interaction of the body with the environment, in agreement with the general impedance-control concept.
躯干状机器人在对受生物启发的软机器人学这一广泛领域感兴趣的研究人员群体中引起了广泛关注，因为躯干状软臂可能具有与大象非常相似的高灵活性和适应性，并且可能比传统的关节式操纵器更具优势。从实际应用的角度来看，将软流体静力学部分与硬关节部分集成，即类似于大象身体的混合运动学结构，可能是最佳的设计框架。建议在将这种集成应用于包括相关控制范式在内的特定软技术之前，应在概念/认知层面上进行。所提出的建模方法基于被动运动范式（PMP），该范式最初是为解决高度冗余的关节式结构的自由度问题而构想的。结果表明，这种方法可以自然地从高度冗余结构扩展到超冗余结构，包括包含硬组件和软组件的混合结构。PMP模型是基于力的，而不是基于运动的，它由两个主要的计算模块组成：混合运动学链的雅可比矩阵和一个将广义力场映射到全身模型协调姿态的柔顺矩阵。展示了如何利用柔顺矩阵的调制来进行协同形成过程，该过程协调混合身体模型的超冗余特性，同时，根据一般的阻抗控制概念，为躯干末端做好准备，以便身体与环境进行稳定的物理交互。
