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

Continuum robotic arms that are inspired from nature, have manyadvantages compared to traditional robots, which motivate researchers inthis field. Dynamic modeling and controlling these robots are challengingsubjects due to complicated nonlinearities and considerable uncertaintiesexisting in these structures. In this paper, first a dynamic three-dimensionalmodel of the continuum robotic arm is developed as a black-box modelthrough system identification method. The validity of the obtained model isconfirmed by the experimental data. Then, by using the obtained model, ahybrid PID-fuzzy controller, which is considered as a model-free controllerand does not require the exact model of the system is employed forcontrolling the position of the end-effector. Finally, obtained results and theperformance of the controller in reaching to different positions of theworkspace, either trained or not, is discussed.