Soft robots equipped with variable stiffness actuators (VSA) are robust to shocks and are energetically efficient. However, the real springs in the joints allow soft robots to oscillate even when the motors are not moving. This makes controlling the end effector, for example, a challenging task. A new method is presented that allows to control the interaction behavior of soft robots, called Elastic Structure Preserving Impedance (ESPi) control. The performance of ESPi control is demonstrated through numerous experiments with the VSA robotic arm David. This video is for 'Elastic Structure Preserving Impedance (ESPi) Control for Compliantly Actuated Robots', published at IROS 2018 by Manuel Keppler, Dominic Lakatos, Christian Ott, and Alin Albu-Schäffer. Video by Ferdinand Elhardt and Manuel Keppler.

Please take the opportunity to connect and share this video with your friends and family if you find it useful.