Improvement of position accuracy for inflatable robotic arm using visual feedback control method

Abstract

Inflatable robotic arms have been studied as a lightweight and flexible robotic structure for applications to new fields. In general the motion control of inflatable robotic arms is difficult, because they have complicated nonlinear characteristics. This paper proposes a new control method suitable for inflatable robotic arms that realizes precise position control on the basis of a visual feedback system. The effectiveness of the control method is verified by the results of an experiment, in which an inflatable robotic arm with two degrees of freedom and a web camera are used.