Trajectory Generation for Underactuated Soft Robot Manipulators using Discrete Elastic Rod Dynamics

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2603.22604v1
• Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2026 22:01:14 GMT
• Title: Trajectory Generation for Underactuated Soft Robot Manipulators using Discrete Elastic Rod Dynamics
• Abstract summary: Planning motions with dynamically-feasible trajectories requires models that capture arbitrary deformations.<n>We present our trajectory generation framework and validate it experimentally on a pneumatic soft robotic limb.
• Score: 2.739506394240299
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Soft robots are well suited for contact-rich tasks due to their compliance, yet this property makes accurate and tractable modeling challenging. Planning motions with dynamically-feasible trajectories requires models that capture arbitrary deformations, remain computationally efficient, and are compatible with underactuation. However, existing approaches balance these properties unevenly: continuum rod models provide physical accuracy but are computationally demanding, while reduced-order approximations improve efficiency at the cost of modeling fidelity. To address this, our work introduces a control-oriented reformulation of Discrete Elastic Rod (DER) dynamics for soft robots, and a method to generate trajectories with these dynamics. The proposed formulation yields a control-affine representation while preserving certain first-principles force-deformation relationships. As a result, the generated trajectories are both dynamically feasible and consistent with the underlying actuation assumptions. We present our trajectory generation framework and validate it experimentally on a pneumatic soft robotic limb. Hardware results demonstrate consistently improved trajectory tracking performance over a constant-curvature-based baseline, particularly under complex actuation conditions.

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