# Discrete Cosserat Approach for Multi-Section Soft Robots Dynamics

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a discrete Cosserat model for multi-section soft robots that captures shear and torsional deformations, providing a more comprehensive and unified dynamics framework than traditional curvature-based models.

## Contribution

It presents a novel discrete Cosserat approach that accounts for shear and torsion, bridging the gap between continuous models and practical soft robot dynamics.

## Key findings

- Model accurately predicts both in-plane and out-of-plane motions.
- Simulation and experiments validate the model's effectiveness.
- Provides a unified framework for soft robot dynamics.

## Abstract

In spite of recent progress, soft robotics still suffers from a lack of unified modeling framework. Nowadays, the most adopted model for the design and control of soft robots is the piece-wise constant curvature model, with its consolidated benefits and drawbacks. In this work, an alternative model for multisection soft robots dynamics is presented based on a discrete Cosserat approach, which, not only takes into account shear and torsional deformations, essentials to cope with out-of-plane external loads, but also inherits the geometrical and mechanical properties of the continuous Cosserat model, making it the natural soft robotics counterpart of the traditional rigid robotics dynamics model. The soundness of the model is demonstrated through extensive simulation and experimental results for both plane and out-of-plane motions.