Experimental Identification and Hybrid PID-Fuzzy Position Control of Continuum Robotic Arms

Continuum robotic arms that are inspired from nature, have many advantages compared to traditional robots, which motivate researchers in this field. Dynamic modeling and controlling these robots are challenging subjects due to complicated nonlinearities and considerable uncertainties existing in these structures. In this paper, first a dynamic three-dimensional model of the continuum robotic arm is developed as a black-box model through system identification method. The validity of the obtained model is confirmed by the experimental data. Then, by using the obtained model, a hybrid PID-fuzzy controller, which is considered as a model-free controller and does not require the exact model of the system is employed for controlling the position of the end-effector. Finally, obtained results and the performance of the controller in reaching to different positions of the workspace, either trained or not, is discussed.