Simulation-Ready Characterization of Soft Robotic Materials
Christian Schumacher, Espen Knoop, Moritz Bächer
Abstract
Simulation-driven design of soft robots requires accurate and stable simulations. In this article, we present an inverse finite element approach enabling simulation-ready characterization of soft robotic materials from uniaxial test data. Representing test specimens with finite elements, and modeling the specimen-device coupling, we enable the simultaneous fitting of hyperelastic parameters to single or multiple tests performed on specimens of varying shape and size. To safeguard against simulation instabilities, or non-physical behavior, we reparameterize and bound parameters using the consistency with linear elasticity. We use our characterization on commonly used silicones, and discuss the resolution- and order-dependence of fitted parameters, and the Mullins effect in the context of simulation-based design.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{ral2020_simulationreadyc,
title = {Simulation-Ready Characterization of Soft Robotic Materials},
author = {Christian Schumacher and Espen Knoop and Moritz Bächer},
booktitle = {RA-L 2020},
year = {2020}
}