Design and control strategy of a flexible, hyper-redundant robotic arm using electroactive dielectric polymers

Hyper-redundant, flexible robotic arms inspired by muscular hydrostats perform well in tightly-constrained spaces and are capable of complex movements. These types of manipulators possess a wide range of motion while also achieving complex geometrical configurations. Although, flexible structures that mimic muscular hydrostats like the octopus arm have been attempted in the literature by using pneumatic air muscles (PAM), shape memory alloys (SMAs), or strings and cables, light-weight, relatively power-dense dielectric electroactive polymers (EAP) can also be used in unison with a flexible robotic arm structure to provide actuation. This thesis presents a variety of designs for this type of robotic arm while utilizing a EAP model-guided approach to assist in arm design. Preliminary efforts have been made to manufacture a prototype arm design as well as learn about the EAP material properties through experimentation. Furthermore, this thesis presents a control strategy called partial differential equation (PDE) boundary control in hopes to effectively control arms of this nature. Experimental results are presented on PDE boundary control to validate its effectiveness