The current evolutionary trends in soft robotics try to exploit the capacities of smart materials to achieve compact robotics designs with embodied intelligence. In this way, the number of elements that compose the soft robot can be reduced, as the smart material can cover different aspects (e.g., structure and sensorization) all in one. This work follows this tendency and presents a custom-designed hydrogel that exhibits two smart features, self-healing and ionic conductivity, used to build a pneumatic actuator. The self-healing capability provides the actuator's structure with the ability to self-repair from damages (e.g., punctures or cuts), an important quality to prolong the life cycle of the actuator. The ionic conductivity enables the actuator's proprioception: the structure itself serves as a curvature sensor. The behavior of this proprioceptive curvature sensor is analyzed in this work, studying its linearity, stability, and performance after a self-healing process. This sensor is also proposed as feedback in a closed-loop scheme to automatically control the actuator's curvature. A proportional-integral-derivative controller is designed based on an empirical model of the actuator's dynamics, and then validated in experimental tests, proving the proprioceptive sensor as proper feedback. These control tests are performed over undamaged and self-healed actuators, thus demonstrating all the capabilities of our soft material.

中文翻译：

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由自愈水凝胶制成的软气动执行器的本体感觉和控制。


当前软机器人技术的进化趋势试图利用智能材料的能力来实现具有具体智能的紧凑型机器人设计。通过这种方式，可以减少构成软体机器人的元件数量，因为智能材料可以涵盖不同的方面（例如，结构和传感器化）。这项工作遵循这一趋势，提出了一种定制设计的水凝胶，它表现出两个智能功能，即自愈和离子导电性，用于构建气动致动器。自愈能力使促动器的结构能够从损坏（例如，穿刺或割伤）中自我修复，这是延长促动器使用寿命的重要品质。离子电导率使致动器的本体感觉成为可能：结构本身用作曲率传感器。这项工作分析了这种本体感觉曲率传感器的行为，研究了其在自我修复过程后的线性度、稳定性和性能。该传感器也被提议作为闭环方案中的反馈，以自动控制执行器的曲率。基于致动器动力学的经验模型设计了比例-积分-微分控制器，然后在实验测试中进行了验证，证明了本体感觉传感器是适当的反馈。这些控制测试是在未损坏和自愈的执行器上进行的，从而展示了我们软材料的所有功能。