peterzs / softrobotkinematics

Soft Robot Kinematics by Geometry Computing

This is the demo code for soft robot kinematics computing based on geometry computing, which is the implementation of paper:

• "Kinematics of soft robots by geometric computing", Guoxin Fang, Christopher-Denny Matte, Rob B.N. Scharff, Tsz-Ho Kwok, and Charlie C.L. Wang. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol.36, no.4, pp.1272-1286, August 2020. (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9082704).

Installation

Please compline the code with QMake file 'soroKinematics.pro'.

Tested platform: macOS: QT Creator

Windows (recommand): Visual Studio + QT-plugin (tested QT version: 5.12.10 + msvc2017_64)

Remark: if you are using Visual Studio, after using QT VS Tool to open the .pro file and generate the project,

• Set 'shapeLab' as the start up project

• Enable OpenMP to get best performace at: ShapeLab Project Property -> 'Configuration Proerties' -> c/c++ -> Language -> Open MP Support -> Select 'Yes (/openmp)'

• Open Console at: ShapeLab Project Property -> 'Configuration Proerties' -> Linker -> System -> Select 'Console (/SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE)' in 'SubSystem'

• QT verstion if you install a different qt version and meet with an issue open the UI after compile the project, you may first check and find 'Qt5Core.dll', 'Qt5Gui.dll', and 'Qt5Wdgets.dll' in the QT installed folder and add to '../shapeLab/release/' folder (Visual Studio will generate this folder after you compile the project). For Debug mode, you need to add 'Qt5Cored.dll', 'Qt5Guid.dll', and 'Qt5Wdgetsd.dll' to '../shapeLab/debug/' folder.

• OPENGL issue if you meet with any issue with "unresolved external symbol _xxx_glxxx",

at: 'Configuration Proerties-> General -> Additional Include Directories -> add '..\packages\opengl\gl'

at: 'Configuration Proerties -> Linker -> Input -> Additional Dependencies -> add 'opengl32.lib' and 'glu32.lib'

Usage

Input soft robot models in File->Open->"soro_body.tet", this is the tetrahedron mesh includes body elements and actuation elements.

Before kinematics computing, press the buttom "pre-process system", it will import the pre-defined chamber selection file installed in "soro_chamber.txt" and "soro_rigid_handle.txt".

Run Forward Kinematics: define actuator parameter in the spinbox (prefer within the range [1,3.5]) and press 'forward kinematics' buttom.

Run Inverse Kinematics: press buttom "Inverse Kinemtaics". Notice that IK computing by numerical-based simulation can be slow, please check our recent work for real-time IK computing

• "Jacobian-based learning for inverse kinematics of soft robots", Guoxin Fang, Yingjun Tian, Zhi-Xin Yang, Jo MP Geraedts, Charlie CL Wang, (https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.13965).

Contact

Guoxin Fang： [email protected]