An underwater bio-inspired tendon-driven soft robotic limb with a tension sensing controller

The purpose of this thesis was to construct a soft limb that is driven by tendons that are operated through continuous servo motors. The anatomical characteristics of a squid served as a source of inspiration for the engineering of the limb, which was developed solely for integration into an underwater robotic platform. The URSULA 216M201 project relies heavily on this new construction as an essential component. In addition, a manufacturing technique was designed so that flexible limbs could be fabricated using silicone. The manufacturing of the arms was a success where conical arms with a length of 300mm, a base diameter of 30mm, and a tip diameter of 15mm made from silicone were molded. Moreover, a control module has been designed and proposed with the intention of monitoring the tension levels of the tendons that are integrated within the pliable limb. A tension sensor that is based on an FSR sensor is what the control module is made up of. The accuracy of the sensor demonstrates errors lower than 6% for the mean values of all measurements. The design of a tension controller utilizing MATLAB, as well as its simulation, was a fruitful endeavor that produced the desired results, a transient response for the step input. Moreover, the dynamic simulation also proved to be successful.