Port-Hamiltonian Control Design for an IPMC Actuated Highly Flexible Endoscope

This paper deals with modelling and control of an endoscope actuated by Ionic Polymer Metal Composites (IPMC) patches. The endoscope is modelled by a nonlinear partial differential equation (PDE) capable to describe large deformations. The dynamics of the flexible structure and of the IPMC patches are in port-Hamiltonian form, with the actuators interconnected to the mechanical device in power-conserving way. Thus, the complete model is a port-Hamiltonian system in which a PDE with fixed boundary conditions is coupled with a set of ordinary differential equations. The control inputs are the voltages applied to the patches, and the feedback law is designed within the Interconnection and Damping Assignment Passivity-based Control (IDA-PBC) framework. The asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system is proved, and the effectiveness of the design procedure is illustrated by a numerical example.