Achieves high-bandwidth, precise Cartesian control of a fully soft continuum robot, breaking the assumption that softness and precision are incompatible.
arXiv · March 18, 2026 · 2603.16630
The Takeaway
Traditionally, soft robots are either 'too soft' for precision or 'stiffened' to act like rigid chains. This work uses reduced-order strain modeling and high-speed direct-drive actuation to achieve the fastest reported task execution for a fully compliant arm.
From the abstract
High-performance closed-loop control of truly soft continuum manipulators has remained elusive. Experimental demonstrations have largely relied on sufficiently stiff, piecewise architectures in which each actuated segment behaves as a distributed yet effectively rigid element, while deformation modes beyond simple bending are suppressed. This strategy simplifies modeling and control, but sidesteps the intrinsic complexity of a fully compliant body and makes the system behave as a serial kinemati