Material modeling and development of soft surgical robots using transient finite element analysis

An increasing research dedication has been devoted recently to soft robotics. Soft robots are best known for their compliance and safety that nominate them substantially for human-centered applications. Robot-assisted surgical operations are expanding worldwide where soft robots find their potential way for this application. Soft robots are fabricated from highly nonlinear soft materials like silicone rubbers that exhibit complex combined hyperelastic, viscoelastic, and hysteresis behaviors. Dynamic modeling of soft robots that incorporate different soft materials with fiber-reinforcement involves many considerations and depends on the underlying design concept. Establishing a certain dynamic model can be valid for a certain design configuration that may not be applicable to another one. This work proposes a transient finite element analysis-based methodology for design and dynamic simulation of fiber-reinforced soft robots for minimally invasive surgery. This methodology is based on cohesive material testing and modeling paradigms and aims to found a generalized theoretical framework for the development and experimentation of soft robots. A multi-camera vision tracking system is proposed for monitoring the 3D soft robot moving trajectory. Experimental validation of the proposed methodology proves its reliability and accuracy for estimating the soft robot dynamic response upon different actuation scenarios. The suggested methodology can be utilized in the future for developing new soft robots, devising, and testing new dynamic models or control algorithms for soft robots.