Journal of Computer and Communications, 2022, 10, 103-112

https://www.scirp.org/journal/jcc
ISSN Online: 2327-5227
ISSN Print: 2327-5219

A Control Method for SMA Robotic Actuators

Tian Lyu

School of Mechatronics Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China

How to cite this paper: Lyu, T. (2022) A Abstract

Control Method for SMA Robotic Actua-
tors. Journal of Computer and Communi- Soft robots show remarkable benefits over conventional rigid robots due to
cations, 10, 103-112. their high energy density and other factors. We propose a circular soft robot
https://doi.org/10.4236/jcc.2022.105007
integrating the control system, actuating it with several shape memory alloy
Received: April 6, 2022 (SMA) actuators. Our research methodology involved connecting the DC vol-
Accepted: May 28, 2022 tage supply and L298N module to provide uninterrupted power to the actuator
Published: May 31, 2022 and thence control the actuator via Arduino Uno MCU and TOF camera. We
designed the controller to simultaneously complete the positioning and mani-
Copyright © 2022 by author(s) and
Scientific Research Publishing Inc. pulation tasks. A novel method utilizing visual servo and closed-loop control
This work is licensed under the Creative algorithm was proposed and integrated into the controller. This method in-
Commons Attribution International volves the implementation of multi-gait locomotion using SMA actuators.
License (CC BY 4.0).
Additionally, the development of closed-loop dynamic controllers for a
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Open Access
continuous soft robot is also evaluated. The proposed control model is de-
signed and simulated on the MATLAB tool. To verify the efficiency of the
proposed forward-feedback controller, simulations and experiments were
conducted in the current study. A new control method using PID control
based on the Kalman filtering algorithm and visual servo for the SMA actu-
ator designed in this research is introduced. We conclude that applying
spike excitation voltage would benefit the actuating performance. Overall,
the experimental results demonstrated a promising future for the purposed
control method.

Keywords
Soft Robotics, Shape Memory Alloys, Visual Servo, PID Control

1. Introduction
Besides rigid robotics, soft robotics has shown greater efficiency in adapting to
complex environments [1] [2] [3]. As soft robotics could be regarded as a com-
plex rigid robot with infinite joints [4], it revealed a lack of appropriate control
strategies, thus creating obstacles to the precise control of soft robotics [5].

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T. Lyu

Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs), as one of the novel materials, though found
suitable for actuators of soft robotics, have a limitation of being short of control
strategies [1] [2] [3] [6].
Fei et al. proposed a closed-loop control method embedding four curvature
sensors as the feedback signals [1] [3]. However, their strategy involved a meti-
culous forging of the steel shell and affixing of the sensors, which increases the
complexity of the system and scale. Cheng et al. developed an SMA-based soft
robot, with a motion processing unit (MPU) for sending back the angular and
velocity data [2]. Nevertheless, control methods based on integrated sensor
feedback are feasible to operate larger-scale robots but not the centimetre-scale
robot in this study. Consequently, a suitable control strategy for centimeter-scale
soft robots is required. More measures can be found in controlling soft robots.
Fan et al. applied Visual Servo to a type of soft robot and concluded this me-
thod’s active regulation as being more efficient [7]. Instead of attaching peri-
pheral sensors to the small-scale soft robots, the method of using a camera set to
capture the position changes of the coiled robots should be considered. Nuch-
krua T et al. proposed a contouring control of the robot, focusing on the error of
the robot’s end-factor [8]. This could be achieved by detecting the end terminals
of the actuators via computer vision. Hence, it was implemented in the current
research.
Therefore, a control system with a visual servo as the input signal and an in-
tegrated Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) and Kalman filter as the control
algorithm is proposed.
This study aims to develop a control strategy. The rest of this paper is orga-
nized as follows: In Section 2, a control model is designed and simulated on the
MATLAB tool. In Section 3, the setup of the prototype and experiments is dem-
onstrated. In Section 4, conclusions and expectations from this research are pre-
sented.

2. Design and Simulation of the Control System

This control system aims to achieve the maximum position that an actuator can
reach. Since the soft robot designed in this research gains mobility by extending
its actuators to acquire friction force and reaction force, the position or defor-
mation control of the actuators enables accurate control of this centimeter-scale
robot.
To better simulate or construct a control system, a sufficient amount of data
was obtained by recording the performance of a single actuator under different
parameters. It showed the relationship among the diameter of the SMA coil wire,
excitation voltage to generate the deformation of the SMAs, pulse width for ex-
citation, pulse width for restoration, length of SMA coils, etc.
An optimized selection of the parameters is chosen. By altering its excitation
pulse width duration, the maximum position of the actuator could be controlled.
Afterward, a scattered map in relation to maximum deformation and excitation

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 T. Lyu

time is drawn using the data obtained. The Fourier fitting method is applied to
obtain the input-output curve of the system [9].
Hence, the function of the curve can be determined using the following Equa-
tion (1):
O (t ) =
37.31 − 8.766 cos ( 0.0427t ) − 1.84sin ( 0.0427t ) (1)

where, O(t) denotes the deformation function of the actuator and signifies the
duration of the excitation pulse. The graph shows a partial nonlinearity since its
nonlinearity happens only in extreme conditions when excitation time is either
too short or long. So, in a general control, we could still apply traditional control
methods to this slightly nonlinear system.
Using Equation (1), we can obtain the transfer function in the frequency do-
main of the control system as:
133
TF ( s ) = (2)
s 2 + 25s
PID is commonly used in various linear control situations due to the deviation
of the initial state and the uncertainty of the model, appropriately induced noise
is conducive to a faster approximation to the real state. During the control
process, noises or bias can be induced by several factors like manual measure-
ment error, camera measurement error, etc. So, a PID control based on the Kal-
man filtering algorithm is suitable for the filtration of the controlled noise and
the measuring noise [10].
Figure 1 shows the block diagram of the PID control based on the Kalman
filtering algorithm control system. By cascading the two major control algo-
rithms, we can obtain the following Equations (3-6):
From PID control [11], we can obtain:
 de ( t ) 
k p e ( t ) + ki ∫0 e ( t ) dt + kd
t
u=  (3)
 dt 

where, u is the output of the PID block.

From the Kalman filter, we have:
x=
k +1 Axk + Buk (4)

=
Pk +1 APk AT + Q (5)

( )
−1
=K k Pk H T HPk H T + R (6)

xk + K k ( zk − Hxk )
xk = (7)

P=
k ( I − K k H ) Pk (8)

where, R and Q indicate the control error and measured error, respectively, in
the diagram. Further, Pk denotes the anticipated actual position at present.
For yd in diagram 2, we can predefine the demanded gait for the actuator. y in
the diagram shows the data received from the camera and ye is the anticipated
actual gait same as the output value of Equation (8).

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T. Lyu

Figure 1. PID control based on the Kalman filtering algorithm block.

Accordingly, we can simulate the control process of the system via MATLAB
software. The demanded gait was set to a constant 20 mm, and random noise
was set to generate within a range of 1.
R, Q, k p , k I , k D rely more on practical usage conditions, so in the simulation,
they are set to be the value that does not affect the evaluation of this method and
is calibrated in the actual experiment.
Table 1 shows the inputs variables and their values. As listed in the table,
where a and b stands for the coefficients in the transfer function. yd is the de-
manded gait length, which remains constant of 200 during the simulation. M is
the number of steps of the simulation, which is 3000 steps in this case. R, Q are
variables used in the Kalman filtering process.
In Figure 2, the simulation result is plotted, where the red curve indicates the
ideal output gait after PID, the black line shows the signal under noise condi-
tions, and the blue line demonstrates the demanded gait. The plot shows that the
method is deemed plausible due to a gradual constraining of the simulated out-
put signal to the demanded signal.
Till now, the design and simulation process has been briefly described. The
following section focuses on experiment setups and approaches.

3. Experiment
To modulate the pulse width of the excitation pulse, Microcontroller Units
(MCUs) are adequate for this task. Yet, the principle of SMAs to deform is con-
tingent on the electric power it receives as springs are electrified and heat is gen-
erated [1] [6]. The MCUs could not provide such large electric power to generate
heat on the SMA wires so a DC voltage supply and an L298N module are
needed.
The MCU used in this experiment is an Arduino Uno due to its simplicity.
The DC voltage supply and L298N module are connected, as shown in Figure 3.
Thus, sufficient and constant power can be directly supplied to the actuator.

Table 1. Inputs of the MATLAB simulation.

Item a b M yd Q R
Value 25 133 3000 200 1 1

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 T. Lyu

Figure 2. Result of the simulation.

Figure 3. Hardware connection.

Figure 4 demonstrates a functional flow chart of MCU. The left part regard-
ing receiving visual servo data from the computer is completed with a function
block that is similar to a Universal Asynchronous Receiver-Transmitter (UART)
interrupt. The UART block examines each package it receives from the comput-
er and forsakes the invalid formatted packages. Maximum data are sorted and
stored as a static variable in an appropriate package. This UART process is soli-
tary from the main loop, thereby maintaining an optimal sampling rate despite
the influence of the time delay function in the main loop. The maximum value is
reset after the execution of the restoration process.
The visual servo in this experiment is aimed at detecting the distance between
two marked points on the SMA wire and feedback on the real-time value.
A Time-of-Flight (TOF) camera (Axon Technology) is chosen. The M5 type
camera has a detection range of 30 - 50 cm with 1 mm precision.
TOF camera has some advantages over other depth cameras such as binocular
cameras and RGB depth cameras; it maintains unaffected or slightly affected

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T. Lyu

Figure 4. Functional flow chart of MCU.

under various lighting conditions. Yet, a TOF camera can achieve only a 30 fps
frame rate, leading to loss of data when tracking high-speed motion. Neverthe-
less, this type of depth camera still fits this experiment because the restoring
procedure of the SMA wires is relatively slow though excitation occurs in milli-
seconds. The samples just after the excitation of SMAs can be regarded as the
maximum deformation.
Two orange play dough points are affixed to each end of the actuator. The
mark points ought to be reduced to their minimum size to optimize the detec-
tion performance. To obtain the distance between the points of interest, two
main procedures are included, namely clarifying the image to detect the points
and calculating the world coordinates of the points.
In the first part of the procedure, each frame of the video’s color stream is
taken and converted to Hue Saturation Value (HSV) stream. The threshold value
of the mark points is selected in the HSV frame and thence to crop the area of
interest placing two mark points at the center. The cropping process is relatively
inevitable since environmental color may contaminate the mark points’ location
approximation. Image dilation followed by contour retrieval is executed. Then,
the geometric centers of the contours are determined.
Then, the coordinates of the centers could be conducted; the z coordinates of
the centers can be obtained by mapping the depth stream and color stream,
whereas the x and y positions could be converted from the image pixel coordi-
nates after camera calibration (Qing) [12]. Still, only relative values are produced
after these steps, so a precise gauge to measure the actual interval between the
mark points is needed, in order to conduct the coefficient for each axis from
image world coordinates to actual length separately. A general control system
schematic diagram is shown in Figure 5.
The coordinates’ data of the SMA actuator are sampled, calculated, and con-

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 T. Lyu

verted to the approximate length on a laptop simultaneously. Meanwhile, the

measured data from the visual servo along with demanded gait data, which can
be pre-loaded on the MCU, are assigned to PID control based on the Kalman
filtering algorithm. Eventually, a control signal is produced by MCU and the
SMA robot is actuated.
Figure 6 demonstrates a general view of the test setups. The SMA actuator at
one end is fixed on the white background with the other end free. Both terminals
of the actuator are coated with white covers, and this is to eliminate the visual rec-
ognition error induced by the reflection of soldering material at the terminals of
the SMA. Then, the SMA actuator is wired to the L298N module and the MCU.

Figure 5. General control system scheme dia-

gram.

Figure 6. An overall view of an SMA actuator

and its control system.

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T. Lyu

Actuating and controlling the SMA actuator in two conditions are tested; rela-
tively low excitation voltage with more lasting pulse duration along with rela-
tively high voltage with spike pulse excitation groups are recorded. By defining
spike and gradual excitation, the excitation voltage lasting < 800 ms would be
considered as a spike pulse, while 800 ms < voltage lasting < 4 s is considered as
gradual excitation. Due to protecting the SMA wire from burning out, a upper
limit of 4s excitation duration is selected. R, Q, k p , k I , k D Parameters of PID
control based on the Kalman filtering algorithm are carefully calibrated before
data recording.
Lower excitation voltage requires a longer time for SMA to accumulate a suf-
ficient amount of heat to deform, resulting in gradual distortion. This process is
slow and conspicuous that the sampling rate of the TOF camera could fit the
deformation procedure. To make the conjecture cogent, each test group uses
different SMA actuators but is made to the approximately similar original length
of 44 mm. Two groups of tests records are scattered in Figure 7(a). Both the test
results show that the final maximum length has fallen into the margin of de-
mand. The margin of demand is coded into MCU, defining 0.5 mm as its value,
since the precision of the camera is 1 mm. On test 1, a gradual convergence can
be seen according to the curve while on test 2, a maximum length regression of
meeting the upper boundary of the range can be observed.
After several repetitions, our research proposes that applying spike excitation
voltage would benefit the actuating performance. Such that a test sample of SMA
actuator with an original length of 42 mm and demanded gait of 45 mm is plot-
ted in Figure 7(b). The intercepted final convergence shows a satisfying result.
Even though rapid deformation leads to the loss of sampling points on the exci-
tation edge of the curve, the maximum length of the actuator still converges to
set the target value.

Figure 7. (a) Test data of gradual excitation, (Only final convergence interval intercepted), original length average: 44 mm tar-
geted length: 46 0.5 mm; (b) Test data of spike excitation, (Only final convergence interval intercepted), original length aver-
age: 42 mm targeted length: 45 0.5 mm.

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 T. Lyu

4. Conclusions
In this study, a control method using PID control based on the Kalman filtering
algorithm and visual servo for the SMA actuator designed was introduced. Si-
mulations with MATLAB and experiments are conducted, promising a pros-
pecting future for the integral SMA soft robot and its control system.
Visual recognition stability and measurement precision are still technical bar-
riers in this research. In future studies, we would embed a Reinforce Learning
control of gait to this robotics system.

Data Availability
The raw/processed data required to reproduce these findings are available online
at
https://github.com/JasonLvernex/PID-KALMAN-control-for-a-SMA-soft-robot
-based-on-computer-vision

Conflicts of Interest
The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this pa-
per.

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