The National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Program (CFDA 47.041) awarded a $299,994 project grant to the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) on September 1, 2024. The grant supports fundamental research on modeling, self-sensing, and control of novel coiled string actuators, with the goal of enabling the development of more compact and dexterous compliant robotic manipulators.
The project aims to (1) develop physics-based, kinematic, and machine learning-based control-oriented models to capture the actuation behavior of coiled string actuators, (2) create a model to realize strain self-sensing capabilities, and (3) construct inverse compensation and adaptive control strategies to precisely control the non-uniform coiling-induced actuation. The research will be experimentally validated on a compliant robotic manipulator prototype. This work is expected to advance the state-of-the-art in compliant actuator technologies, which have broad applications in manufacturing, healthcare, and wearable devices.