Alleviation of Residual Vibrations in Hard-Magnetic Soft Actuators Using a Command-Shaping Scheme

Hard-magnetic soft materials belong to a class of the highly deformable magneto-active elastomer family of smart materials and provide a promising technology for flexible electronics, soft robots, and functional metamaterials. When hard-magnetic soft actuators are driven by a multiple-step input signal (Heaviside magnetic field signal), the residual oscillations exhibited by the actuator about equilibrium positions may limit their performance and accuracy in practical applications. This work aims at developing a command-shaping scheme for alleviating residual vibrations in a magnetically driven planar hard-magnetic soft actuator. The control scheme is based on the balance of magnetic and elastic forces at a critical point in an oscillation cycle. The equation governing the dynamics of the actuator is devised using the Euler–Lagrange equation. The constitutive behaviour of the hard-magnetic soft material is modeled using the Gent model of hyperelasticity, which accounts for the strain-stiffening effects. The dynamic response of the actuator under a step input signal is obtained by numerically solving the devised dynamic governing equation using MATLAB ODE solver. To demonstrate the applicability of the developed command-shaping scheme, a thorough investigation showing the effect of various parameters such as material damping, the sequence of desired equilibrium positions, and polymer chain extensibility on the performance of the proposed scheme is performed. The designed control scheme is found to be effective in controlling the motion of the hard-magnetic soft actuator at any desired equilibrium position. The present study can find its potential application in the design and development of an open-loop controller for hard-magnetic soft actuators.