Sorotoki: A Matlab Toolkit for Design, Modeling, and Control of Soft Robots

Abstract

In this paper, we present Sorotoki, an open-source toolkit in MATLAB that offers a comprehensive suite of tools for the design, modeling, and control of soft robots. The complexity involved in researching and building soft robots often stems from the interconnectedness of design and control aspects, which are rarely addressed together as a unified problem. To address the complex interdependencies in soft robotics, the Sorotoki toolkit provides a comprehensive and modular programming environment composed of seven Object-Oriented classes. These classes are designed to work together to solve a wide range of soft robotic problems, offering versatility and flexibility for its users. We provide a comprehensive overview of the Sorotoki software architecture to highlight its usage and applications. The details and interconnections of each module are thoroughly described, collectively explaining how to gradually introduce modeling complexity for various soft robotic scenarios. The effectiveness of Sorotoki is also demonstrated through a range of case studies, including novel problem scenarios and established works widely recognized in the soft robotics community. These case studies cover a broad range of research problems, including: inverse design of soft actuators, passive and active soft locomotion, object manipulation with soft grippers, meta-materials, model reduction, model-based control of soft robots, and shape estimation. Additionally, the toolkit provides access to four open-hardware soft robotic systems that can be fabricated using commercially available 3D printers. For more information about Sorotoki, readers are encouraged to visit: https://bjcaasenbrood.github.io/SorotokiCode/ INDEX TERMS Soft robotics, software, design, modeling, control, matlab

ANCF-based dynamic modeling of variable curvature soft pneumatic actuators with experimental verifications

“…In FEM, the dynamic model is calculated by numerically integrating forces through all elements and is expressed by a set of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Commercial FEM software (such as Abaqus and ANSYS [9][10][11]) and open-source FEM packages (such as SOFA [12] and Sorotoki [13]) are wildly employed to investigate the dynamic response of soft actuators. However, accurately simulating large deformation necessitates massive elements and small step sizes, leading to a heavy computation burden of FEM [14].…”