Flexible membranes, which can undergo large deformations under fluidic actuation, find many applications in soft robotics. Many designs take advantage of the significant instabilities such structures exhibit, under dynamic fluidic and/or electrical actuation. While the unusual structural properties of elastomer membranes allow soft robots to exhibit remarkable biomimetic capabilities, they make control much more difficult. Real-time control of membrane-based robots thus require fast simulators that can capture these time varying mechanical nonlinearities.
This project aims to develop a model that can handle the nonlinear geometrical dynamics and mechanical instability exhibited by such membranes under dynamic actuation. To that end, we use discrete differential geometry (DDG), for the nonlinear dynamic analysis of elastomer membranes.
Project Member: Anwesha Chattoraj