Complex & Intelligent Systems

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40747-023-00980-1

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Robust tracking control of unknown models for space in-cabin robots

with a pneumatic continuum arm
Hui Wang1 · Ke Ma1 · Sihuan Wu1 · Minghao Li1 · Xiaobin Lian2 · Jinxiu Zhang1

Received: 21 October 2022 / Accepted: 16 January 2023

© The Author(s) 2023

Abstract
The service robots of space station in-cabin have attracted more and more attention. The space in-cabin robot with a pneumatic
continuum arm is studied in this paper. It could be safer, more efficient and more flexible than the space rigid robot. However,
the coupling motion of the moving base and the pneumatic continuum continuous arm brings a new challenge for controlling
the end-effector to track the desired path. In this paper, a new control method based on the zeroing neural network (ZNN)
is developed to solve the high-precision kinematics trajectory tracking control problem of unknown models. The real-time
Jacobian matrix of the in-cabin robots with a pneumatic continuum arm is estimated by the input–output information when
the parameter and the structure of the kinematic model are unknown. Moreover, this paper also employs a modified activation
function power-sigmoid activation function (PSAF) to improve the robustness. In addition, it is proved through the Lyapunov
stability theory that the proposed control approach is convergent and stable. Finally, the simulation results are given to show
the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control method for space in-cabin robots with a pneumatic continuum arm.

Keywords In-cabin robots · Unknown models · Pneumatic continuum arm · Tracking control · Zeroing neural network
(ZNN)

Introduction [3], Astrobee [4, 5] Synchronized Position Hold Engage and

In recent years, China has also made a breakthrough in
space station technology with the continuous development
of space technology. China has successfully launched the
Tianhe Core Module and created a large-scale, long-term
manned national space laboratory to develop China’s Space
Station (CSS) between 2021 and 2022 [1]. At present, the
long-term care of the Space Station and the implementation
of complex scientific studies primarily rely on human astro-
nauts. Astronauts need to do many microgravity experiments
in biology, physics, astronomy, and other fields in the Space
Station. So it is important to help astronauts perform their
work efficiently [2]. In International Space Station (ISS), sev-
eral in-cabin assistant robots have been proposed and flown
on orbit, which includes Personal Satellite Assistant (PSA)
B Jinxiu Zhang
zhangjinxiu@sysu.edu.cn
1 School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Sun Yat-Sen
University, Shenzhen 518107, China
2 Shanghai Institute of Satellite Engineering, Shanghai 201109,
China
Reorient Experimental Satellite (SPHERES) [6] Int-Ball [7]
et al.
However, only Astrobee is fitted with a small rigid manip-
ulator in the above space station robots. They could not help
the astronauts carry things or make some simple operations
in the space station. Therefore, we propose a new space sta-
tion robot’s scheme that installs a pneumatic continuum arm
under the micro-nano robot, as shown in Fig. 1. This pneu-
matic continuum arm is a special kind of robotic manipulator,
including a base and two sections pneumatic manipulator
consisting of three bellows, which exhibits biological behav-
iors similar to trunks by the folded structure composed of
elastic elements and flexible materials [8]. Compared with
traditional manipulators, pneumatic continuum manipulators
are safer and more flexible [9]. In the limited space station,
it can not only improve the work efficiency of astronauts but
also ensure the safety of astronauts. So the in-cabin robots
with a pneumatic continuum arm can help astronauts carry
cargo and perform routine inspections of instruments. Fur-
thermore, it can work collaboratively and interactively with
the astronauts [11].

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Fig. 1 The model of space in-cabin robots with a pneumatic continuum
arm and some partial schematic diagrams
Based on the above analysis, pneumatic continuum manip-
ulators have great prospects in the future, especially in
aerospace applications. However, there are few applications
of continuum arms in aerospace [12]. There are two main
reasons: there is no scholar who studied the kinematic model
of the space continuum arm of the moving base, and the lack
of effective and practical control algorithms.
Unlike traditional rigid robots, pneumatic continuum
manipulators generally have no fixed joints and rods but an
infinite degree of freedom theoretically. Therefore, it is dif-
ficult to model the kinematics of continuum robots without
strong assumptions. The analytical models mainly include
the Pseudo Rigid Body Model and the Constant Curvature
Model, which are very fast to compute and can be derived eas-
ily for control law proofs [13]. This paper adopts the Constant
Curvature Model to solve the Jacobian of soft continuum
robots. The following assumptions are made the bending
always keeps the shape of constant curvature and there is
no torsion produced [15]. However, the continuum robots in
the space station are weightless, so the bending case can be
treated completely as constant curvature.
The tracking control of the space continuum robots is an
important problem in a wide range of applications, which
moves the end-effector to track the desired trajectory in the
inertial space [16]. Generally, the kinematic control of the
end-effector can be implemented using the inverse kine-
matics calculation method when the desired path is known.
In addition, the infinite DOF of continuum robots make
inverse kinematics multi-solutions. The coupled motion of
the moving base and the continuous arm also increases
the difficulty of the solution. Therefore, the acquisition of
efficient solutions is challenging. Many researchers have
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Complex & Intelligent Systems
proposed different methods to solve the problem. Falken-
hahn et al. [17] have been used to generate a time-optimal
trajectory by minimizing pose error based on Quadratic
Programming (QP). Salvador et al. [18] developed a novel
kinematic model that can control the end-effector of a contin-
uum manipulator in narrow environments combining inverse
kinematic and forward kinematic. The above control methods
need that the model of the continuum arm has been known
in advance.
However, the structural complexity and the particularity
of space application make it difficult to build and compute an
accurate model for space in-cabin robots with a pneumatic
continuum arm. Therefore, the control methods of unknown
model can play a crucial part. Jin et al. [19] developed a
model-less feedback controller by estimating the Jacobian
matrix of soft manipulators derived from the structural theory
of the model. Li et al. [20] researched a path-tracking con-
trol of unknown model mainly based on an adaptive Kalman
filter, which is used to find the Jacobian matrix of the con-
tinuum manipulator using only pressures and tip position.
Tan et al. [21] adopted the zeroing neurodynamic theory to
present a model-less trajectory tracking control method for
continuum manipulators. The control of continuum robots
has made great progress.
However, current research on motion control of contin-
uum robots is based on fixed bases. In practical engineering
applications, continuum robots are often mounted on mov-
ing platforms such as smart cars and flying machines. In this
paper, the continuum arm is mounted under the space ser-
vice robot base. The coupling motion between the continuum
robots and the space-moving base has to be considered. Cur-
rent model-free kinematic tracking control methods mainly
consider optimality and hardly pay attention to the robustness
of the control methods. As a result, they will no longer be
applicable to scenarios with complex coupled motion. Hence,
it is important to investigate a more effective, higher pre-
cision, and more robust control method for space in-cabin
robots with a pneumatic continuum arm.
This paper researches the trajectory tracking control of
unknown models for space in-cabin robots with a pneumatic
continuum arm based on the zeroing neural network. In this
method, the high precision tracking control can be achieved
only by the actuator input, sensory output, and the attitude
of base information, when the coupling kinematic model is
unknown. Moreover, PSAF is employed to overcome the
influence of base coupling motion. The main contributions
in this paper are listed as the following facts:
• The scheme of the micro-nano robot with a pneumatic con-
tinuum arm in space station is proposed for the first time,
and the coupling kinematic model between the pneumatic
continuum arm and the moving base is established.
Complex & Intelligent Systems
• A tracking control method of unknown models based on
modified-function-activated ZNN is proposed for solving
the coupling motion problem of the moving base and the
pneumatic continuum arm.
• The convergence, stability and simulation results are
proved and presented. The accuracy and the robustness
of trajectory tracking are greatly improved by employing
the modified activation function PSAF.
The rest of this paper is organized in four sections. In Mod-
eling the space continuum robots, the motion model of space
in-cabin robots with a pneumatic continuum arm is systemat-
ically studied. In Trajectory tracking controller of unknown
model design, a robust tracking control method of unknown
model based on zeroing neural network is presented. The next
section presents the Simulation results. Finally, Conclusion
generalizes the work of this paper.
Modeling the space continuum robots
Scenario description
The target trajectory motion of space in-cabin robots with a
pneumatic continuum arm is researched in this paper. This
motion can represent a typical application scenario for the
space station in-cabin robots. Specifically, the continuum
robot of the space station in-cabin has a pneumatic contin-
uum soft arm mounted on a micro-nano robot base, and the
arm has two sections consisting of three bellows, as shown
in Fig. 2.
Fig. 2 The model of space in-cabin robots with a pneumatic continuum
arm
To demonstrate the kinematics of space in-cabin robots
with a pneumatic continuum arm, the following series of

coordinate systems  are defined [22]. I is the inertial coor-

dinate system, B denotes the base coordinate system, G

is the center of space robot system mass coordinate [23], 1,
 
2, 3 are some local coordinate systems of each section
continuum arm, in Fig. 2. For convenience, the mathemati-
cal notations and abbreviations are defined as follows in this
paper.
m 0 , m 1 , m 2 ∈ R 1 the mass of the space robot base and
each section continuum arm.

P e ∈ R3 the position vector of the end-effector in I.
r 0 ∈ R3 theposition vector for the center of mass (CM)
of the base in I.
r i ∈ R , i ∈ 1, 2 the position vector for the CM of the
3

ith section in I.
r g ∈ R3the position vector for the CM of the space robot
system in I.
 b 0 ∈ R 3 the position vector from the CM of the base in
I.
q ∈ R6 the state vector of actuators. qi j represents the
length of the jth bellow in the ith section.
α, β, θ ∈ R the attitude angle of the base.
ϕi ∈ R1 the deformation orientation of the ith section.
κi ∈ R1 the curvature of the ith section.
li ∈ R1 the backbone length of the ith section.
ne ∈ R3 the unit orientation vector of the end-effector.
α1 , α2 ∈ R1 the orientation angle of the end-effector.
 
T i+1
i ∈ R4×4 the transformation matrix from i to i +
1.  
Ri+1 ∈ R3×3 the rotation matrix from i to i + 1.
i  
O i+1
i ∈ R3×1 the translation matrix from i to i + 1.
γ the iteration parameter of ZNN.
F(·) the activation functions of ZNN.
f (·) the nonlinear mapping describing the kinematic of
robots.
q(t), q̇(t), q̈(t) ∈ R6 the length of actuators at time t, the
derivative, and the second derivative.
P a (t) ∈ R5 including the actual position vector and the
actual orientation vector of the end-effector.
P d (t) ∈ R5 including the desired position vector and the
desired orientation vector of the end-effector.
J(u(t)), J(t) ∈ R5×6 the Jacobian matrix of robots.
ZNN Zeroing neural network.
LAF Linear activation functions.
PSAF Power-sigmoid activation function.
RMSE Root mean squared error
Kinematic modeling
The kinematic model of space in-cabin robots with a pneu-
matic continuum arm is illuminated. The research uses a
bellows-driven soft continuum arm mounted on a micro robot
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 Complex & Intelligent Systems

Fig. 3 The mapping relation in the kinematics of the bellows-driven soft

continuum arm based on constant curvature

Fig. 5 The configuration space of the continuum arm’s ith section

base in this paper. The kinematics model can be represented
by two mappings based on the theory of constant curvature
[24], as shown in Fig. 3. The first mapping denotes the trans-
formation from the actuator state to the configuration state,
and the second mapping denotes the transformation from the
configuration state to the end-effector’s state. The task space
here can be viewed as an expression of an inertial coordinate
system.
In actuator space, q ∈ R 6 represents the state of actua-
tors consisting of six bellows. Each section consists of three Fig. 6 The sectional view of the continuum arm’s ith section
bellows. Two sections in series are connected as a pneumatic
continuum arm. Therefore q [q11 , q12 , q13 , q21 , q22 , q23 ]T
denotes the state of actuators, and qi j denotes the state of be denoted as follows:
the jth bellow in the ith section. The configuration space is  
√
denoted by a triplet (ϕi , κi , li ). The items of (ϕi , κi , li ) ϕi  arctan 2 3(qi2 − qi3 ), 3(qi2 + qi3 − 2qi1 )
denote the orientation of the movement, bending curvature, 
2 qi1 2 + q2 + q2 − q q − q q − q q
and center point length of the ith section respectively. i2 i3 i1 i2 i2 i3 i3 i1
κi  (2)
The end-effector’s position vector can be defined as d(qi1 + qi2 + qi3 )
P e  [x, y, z] in the inertial coordinate system. Besides, the qi1 + qi2 + qi3
end-effector’s orientation can be represented by a unit vector li 
3
ne  [n x , n y , n z ]. Since continuum robots do not twist, the
end-effector’s orientation movement can be expressed using where d is the radius of the pneumatic continuum arm as
two azimuth angles α1 , α2 , as shown in Fig. 4. shown in Figs. 5, 6.
The mapping relationship between the configuration space
α1  arctan(n y /n x ) and task space is represented by coordinate transformation as
 (1) illustrated in Fig. 2. The relative pose and position between
α2  arctan(n z / n 2x + n 2y )  
coordinate frames i and i +1 can be described by several
homogeneous transformation matrices T i+1 i ∈ R4×4 includ-
Since the end-effector’s position and orientation are ing a rotation matrix Ri and a translation vector O i+1
i+1
i , as
denoted as a vector P a  [x, y, z, α1 , α2 ]. follows:
The mapping between the actuator state and the configu-  
ration state of the pneumatic continuum arm’s ith section can Ri+1 O i+1
T i+1
i  i i (3)
01×3 1

where Rii+1 is the rotation matrix of the continuum arm. For

the sake of convenience, c and s denote cosine and sine func-
tions respectively in this paper.

⎡ ⎤
c2 ϕi (c(κi li ) − 1) + 1 sϕi cϕi (c(κi li ) − 1) cϕi s(κi li )
⎢ ⎥
Ri+1
i  ⎣ sϕi cϕi (c(κi li ) − 1) c2 ϕi (1 − c(κi li )) + c(κi li ) sϕi s(κi li ) ⎦
−ci ϕi s(κi li ) −sϕi s(κi li ) c(κi li )
Fig. 4 The orientation of the end-effector (4)

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where O i+1
i is translation vector as follows: Substituting r g ≡ 0, Eq. (11) and Eq. (12) into Eq. (10),
r 0 can be inferred
 
cϕi (1−c(κi li )) sϕi (1−c(κi li )) s(κi li )
O i+1
i  κi κi κi (5)
m 1 (R IB b0 + R IB R1B O m
1 )
1
r0  −
Considering the moving base, R IB is the rotation matrix m0 + m1 + m2
of the micro-nano robot base as follows: m 2 (R IB b0 + R IB R1B O 21 +R IB R1B R21 O m 2
2 )
−
⎡ ⎤⎡ ⎤⎡ ⎤ m0 + m1 + m2 (13)
1 0 0 cβ 0 sβ cθ −sθ 0 
⎢ ⎥⎢ ⎥⎢ ⎥ Therefore, the end-effector’s position vector of in I can
R IB  ⎣ 0 cα −sα ⎦⎣ 0 1 0 ⎦⎣ sθ cθ 0 ⎦ (6)
0 sα cα −sβ 0 cβ 0 0 1 be expressed as follows:
   
where α, β, θ denote the attitude angle of the base which are Pe 03×1
 T IB T 1B T 21 T 32 (14)
controlled and known. The translation vector O IB is defined 1 1
as
The direction vector of the end-effector ne  [n x , n y ,
O IB  r0 (7) n z ] can be calculated as follows:
⎡ ⎤
 0
where r 0 is the position vector of CM of the base in I.
B 1 2 3⎢ ⎥
Hence the transformation matrix T IB is defined as ne  R I R B R 1 R 2 ⎣ 0 ⎦ (15)
1
 
R IB O IB
T IB  (8) The orientation angle α1 , α2 can be calculated according
01×3 1
to Eq. (1) and ne .
In this paper, a tracking control method of unknown model
Then the transformation matrix T 1B as illustrated in Fig. 2. is investigated. But it is worth noting that we need to build the
can be described as follows kinematic model of space in-cabin robots with a pneumatic
  continuum arm when need to do some simulations. In the
I3×3 b0 actual space in-cabin robot system, it only needs to acquire
TB 
1
(9)
01×3 1 the actuator input, sensory output, and the attitude of base
information.
Considering the major characteristic of space contin-
uum robots, the kinematic of the space continuum robots
is coupled to the base in the space station microgravity envi- Trajectory tracking controller of unknown
ronment. Since there is no external force applied to the entire model design
system, r g remains constant [25]. Then, the geometrical def-

inition of G is introduced [26], and thus an additional In this section, a tracking control method of unknown mod-
equation arises as els is introduced. This method based on ZNN is developed to
solve the high precision kinematics trajectory tracking con-
r 1  r 0 + R IB b0 + R IB R1B O m
1
1 trol problem of unknown models for space in-cabin robots
(10) with a pneumatic continuum arm.
r 2  r 0 + R IB b0 + R IB R1B O 21 +R IB R1B R21 O m
2
2

 Controller design
To simplify the model, the r g holds zero in I . Accord-
ing to the geometric features of the system as illustrated in
Generally, we only consider the control of bellow actuators,
Fig. 2, r 1 , r 2 can be described as follows
when the attitude of the base is controlled and invariant. The
kinematic model of space in-cabin robots with a pneumatic
m 0 r 0 + m 1 r 1 + m 2 r 2  r g (m 0 + m 1 + m 2 ) (11)
continuum arm can be expressed as follows:

where regard the position of li 2 as the CM of the ith section. P a (t)  f (q(t)) (16)
Therefore, O im i , i  1, 2 can be presented as follows:
     where P a (t) ∈ R5 represents the actual trajectory of the
O im i  cϕi (1−c(κi li 2)) sϕi (1−c(κi li 2)) s(κi li 2)
κi κi κi
(12) end-effector, q(t) ∈ R6 represents the length of the bellow

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 Complex & Intelligent Systems

actuators, and f (·):R6 →R5 is a kinematic mapping. By dif-
ferentiating Eq. (16), we can obtain
Ṗ a (t)  J(t)q̇(t) (17)
 J(t).
where J(t)  ∂ f (q(t)) ∂q(t) ∈ Rn×m is the unknown Jaco-
bian matrix of the continuum arm, Ṗ a (t) denotes the actual
trajectory velocity of the end-effector, q̇(t) represents the
change rate of the actuators.
To realize the tracking control problem solving of the
unknown model, q(t) is generated to drive the continuum
arm along the desired path and the desired orientation. For
the first error function, we define
e(t)  P d (t) − P a (t) ∈ R5 (18)
Then, using the ZNN ė(t)  −γ F(e(t)) can make the
error function converge to zero [27], we can obtain
are the desired trajectory and the velocity of the desired tra-
jectory, respectively. And P a (t) can be acquired by sensor
metrical data. Since the kinematics of the continuum arm is
unknown, we must estimate the real-time Jacobian matrix
The second error function is proposed to estimate the Jaco-
bian matrix, it is:
ε(t)  Ṗ a (t) − J(t)q̇(t) ∈ R5 (24)
Utilize the ZNN design formula ε̇(t)  −γ F(ε(t)) again
and we obtain
P̈ a (t) − J̇(t)q̇(t) − J(t)q̈(t)  −γ ( Ṗ a (t) − J(t)q̇(t))
(25)
The above equation can be rewritten as

Ṗ d (t) − Ṗ a (t)  −γ F( P d (t) − P a (t)) (19)
where Ṗ d (t) is the velocity of the desired trajectory, γ ∈ R+
is a constant parameter to determine the rate of convergence,
and F(·) denotes the activation function [32]. Then, substi-
tuting Eq. (17) into Eq. (19), we have
Ṗ d (t) − Ṗ a (t)  −γ F( P d (t) − P a (t)) (20)
the solution of Eq. (20) is rewritten as
q̇(t)  J † (t)( Ṗ d (t) + γ F( P d (t) − P a (t))) (21)
where J † (t) is the pseudo-inverse of J(t). In this paper, we
employ two different activation functions including a linear
activation function and a modified activation function.
(1) Linear activation function (LAF)
The linear activation function is presented as follows:
F(x)  x (22)
J̇(t)  ( P̈ a (t) − J(t)q̈(t) + γ ( Ṗ a (t) − J(t)q̇(t)))q̇ † (t)
(26)
where q̇ † (t) is the pseudo-inverse of q̇(t), Ṗ a (t) and P̈ a (t)
can be acquired by sensor measurement information, q̈(t) is
calculated based calculus of differences, as q̈(t)  (q̇(t) −
q̇(t − t))/t. Then, J(t) and J † (t) can be calculated by
solving numerical differential Eq. (26).
Consider that there is always some noise in practical engi-
neering. Therefore, add the noise term ζ (t) ∈ R5 to the first
ZNN design formula as follows:
ė(t)  −γ F(e(t)) + ζ (t) (27)
Then, Eq. (21) will be written as follows:
q̇(t)  J † (t)( Ṗ d (t) + γ F( P d (t) − P a (t)) + ζ (t)) (28)
By solving Eqs. (26) and (28), we can obtain the q(t) and
J(t). The pneumatic continuum arm is actuated by control-
ling q(t). The complete control architecture of the tracking
control system based on ZNN is shown in Fig. 7.

(2) Power-sigmoid activation function (PSAF) [29]

The power-sigmoid activation function is nonlinear, as fol-

lows:

xp |x| ≥ 1
F(x)  1+exp(−ξ ) 1−exp(−ξ x) (23)
·
1−exp(−ξ ) 1+exp(−ξ x) |x| < 1

where p ≥ 3 is an odd number and ξ ≥ 2.

The pseudo-inverse of J(t) should be calculated firstly if Fig. 7 The complete control architecture of the tracking control system
we want to solve the differential Eq. (21). P d (t) and Ṗ d (t) based on ZNN

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Complex & Intelligent Systems

Theoretical analysis Theorem 2. To realize the trajectory tracking control of

In this part, the convergence and the stability of the proposed
control mothed of unknown model based on ZNN are ana-
lyzed by the following theorems.
(a) Convergence analysis
The convergence of the ZNN method will be proved by the-
orem 1 and theorem 2.
Theorem 1. To realize the trajectory tracking control of
unknown model for the in-cabin robots with a pneumatic
continuum arm as Eq. (16), the error of the end-effector’s
actual trajectory P a (t) and the desired trajectory P d (t) will
converge to zero when using the LAF Eq. (22).
unknown model for the in-cabin robots with a pneumatic
continuum arm as Eq. (16), the error of the end-effector’s
actual trajectory P a (t) and the desired trajectory P d (t) will
achieve the better convergent result when using the PSAF as
Eq. (23), comparing with using LAF Eq. (22).
Proof. Similarly, the Lyapunov function candidate V1 can be
used. For the PSAF as Eq. (23), the ZNN formula becomes
ė(t)  −γ F(e(t)), and we can obtain the time derivative of
V1 (t) as follow two cases [31].
 
(1) In the case of e j (t) ≥ 1, where e j (t) represents the
jth element of e(t) and j  1, 2..., n. The time derivative of
V1 (t) can be obtained as follows

Proof. First, define a Lyapunov function candidate as fol- 

n

lows. V̇1  −γ eT (t)F(e(t))  −γ |e j (t)| p+1 (35)

j1
e(t)2 e(t)T e(t)
V1   (29) where p ≥ 3, |e j (t)| p+1
|e j (t)|2 . Hence PSAF has much
2 2
faster convergence rate, when e j (t) ≥ 1. And the solution
where e(t)  P d (t) − P a (t), ·2 represents the Euclidean of ė(t)  −γ F(e(t)) can be given as follows
norm of the vector. We can easily obtain V1 ≥ 0. Taking the
time derivative of V1 (t) and substituting Eq. (22) LAF, one  − 1
p−1
e(t)  e(0) ( p − 1)e p−1 (0)γ t + 1 (36)
can obtain


n when p  3, one can obtain
V̇1  −γ eT (t)F(e(t))  −γ |e j (t)|2 (30) 
j1
e(t)  e(0)/ 2e2 (0)γ t + 1 (37)
where e j (t) represents the jth element of e(t) and j  1, 2...,
Obviously,
n. In addition γ > 0, V1 is obvious negative-definite and e(t)
can converge to zero. Considering the ZNN formula of LAF lim e(t)  0 (38)
ė(t)  −γ e(t), we can get t→∞

Therefore, we can obtain

e(t)  e(0) exp(−γ t) (31)
P d (t) → P a (t), as t → +∞ (39)
Obviously, we have
 
(2) In the case of e j (t) < 1, the solution of ė(t) 
lim e(t)  lim e(0) exp(−γ t)  0 (32) −γ F(e(t)) is given as follows
t→∞ t→∞

By substituting Eq. (18) into Eq. (32), we can obtain e j (t)  − ln(1 + Z (t))/ξ (40)

lim ( P d (t) − P a (t))  0 (33) where

t→∞

Therefore, the above Eq. (33) can be represented as fol- η exp(−ξ γ t) η exp(−ξ γ t)
Z (t)  − sgn(e j (0)) (1 + )−1 (41)
lows 2 2

where η is a constant η  (exp(−ξ e j (0)) −

P d (t) → P a (t), as t → +∞ (34) 1)2 / exp(−ξ e j (0)). Using the Taylor series expansion
Eq. (40), we can obtain
Therefore, the actual trajectory P a (t) will be convergent
 
to the desired trajectory P d (t). Thus, the proof of the theorem  Z Z2 Z3 

|e j (t)|≤ − + − + · · · (42)
is completed. ξ (2ξ ) (3ξ )

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 Complex & Intelligent Systems

when |Z |< 1, there exists Z + Z 2 + Z 3 + · · ·  Z /(1 − Z ). Table 1 Activation functions parameter

Substituting into Eq. (40) yields
Activation functions Parameter
 
 |Z |+|Z |2 +|Z |3 + · ··  |Z | γ 5

|e j (t)|≤   (43)
LAF
ξ  (ξ (1 − |Z |)) PSAF γ  5, p  3, ξ  3

Due to |Z |< 1, the error e j (t) > − ln 2/ξ . Equation (41)

satisfies the inequality as follows Both LAF and PSAF are odd functions and satisfy as fol-
lows
η exp(−ξ γ t)
|Z (t)|≤
2

  ≥ 0, x ≥ 0
η2 exp(−2ξ γ t) + 4η exp(−ξ γ t) η+ η2 + 4η

ξγ t
 F(x) (48)
+ ≤ exp − < 0, x < 0
4 2 2
(44) In addition γ > 0, V̇ (t) is obvious negative-definite.
Therefore, the proposed tracking control method of the
there exists z 0  |Z (t)|< 1, we have known model can be proved to be stable. Thus, the proof
of this theorem is completed.
  
1 η + η2 + 4η ξγ t
|e j (t)|≤ |z|≤ exp − (45) Remark 1. It is worth noting that the work of this paper
ξ (1 − z 0 ) 2ξ (1 − z 0 ) 2 is based on simulations which means Ṗ a (t) and P̈ a (t) are
easily obtained. However, in the actual applications, the parts
when ξ ≥ 2, PSAF possesses much faster convergence rate are difficult to obtain directly. Therefore, when the method
for e j (t) > − ln 2/ξ , comparing with using LAF. is applied in practice, we need to consider the ability and
According to the above two cases, we can draw a conclu- efficiency of the sensor to acquire velocity and acceleration.
sion that PSAF can achieve much faster convergence rate, as
compared with using LAF. Thus, the proof of the theorem is
completed.
Simulation results
(b) Stability analysis
In this section, the numerical simulations are conducted for
Theorem 3. Considering the trajectory tracking control of two different reference trajectories to verify the effective-
unknown model for the in-cabin robots with a pneumatic ness and robustness of the unknown models tracking control
continuum arm, e(t) and ε(t) can converge to zero, hence method. Besides, the effect of parameter variation on tracking
the control method described in (21) and (26) is stable in the error is analyzed by the simulations. Finally, the performance
sense of Lyapunov. of two different activation functions is compared including
LAF and PSAF. Some parameters of LAF and PSAF are
Proof. For the tracking control of the in-cabin robots with a given in Table 1. The simulation environment is performed
pneumatic continuum arm described by (16), define a Lya- in Windows 11 using Matlab2021a. The CPU of the computer
punov function candidate [32] as follows. is 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-11,400.
In the simulation, the radius of the continuum arm is set
e(t)22 + ε(t)22 eT (t)e(t) + εT (t)ε(t) as d  0.05m. The mass of the space robot base and each
V2 (t)   (46) section’s continuous arm are chosen m 0  5kg, m1  m2 
2 2
0.5kg. The attitude angles of the base are controlled and
where e(t)  P d (t) − P a (t) and ε(t)  Ṗ a (t) − J(t)q̇(t). invariant, which are assumed as α, β, θ  0. The initial value
V (t)  0 only if e(t)  0 and ε(t)  0, V (t) > 0 in other of the Jacobian matrix J(0) can be computed as J i (0) 
cases. It is easily checked that the Lyapunov function Eq. (41)  P ai /q by driving each actuator independently. The state
is positive-definite. Taking the time derivative of V (t), one of the bellows is chosen q(0)  [200, 210, 190, 200, 210,
can obtain 190][200, 210, 190, 200, 210, 190] at the beginning time.
Without loss of generality, we define a circular path and a
clover path in the three-dimensional space. Then we take the
e(t) ε(t) circular trajectory of the 3D space as followed:
V̇2 (t)  eT (t) + εT (t)
dt dt  
 −γ eT (t)F(e(t)) − γ εT (t)F(ε(t)) (47) P d X (t)  k1 cos 2π sin2 (0.5π t/T d) − k + 0.0875

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Complex & Intelligent Systems

 
P dY (t)  k1 cos(π /6) sin 2π sin2 (0.5π t/Td ) γ  3, γ  5, γ  10 and make a comparison employing
LAF and PSAF. Here the uniform is tracking  the
 circle trajec-
  tory. As shown in Fig. 10, it shows that e p (t) and eo (t)2
P d Z (t)  k1 sin(π /6) sin 2π sin2 (0.5π t/Td ) + 0.4362   2
decreases as γ increases where e p (t)2 and eo (t)2 denote
the norm of the position error vector and the norm of the
where k2  0.05 m is the radius of the space’s circular path. orientation error vector respectively [30]. In Table 2, we can
Then the desired orientation angle is set as P dα1 (t)  0 obtain the same conclusion according to the RMSE results.
rad, P dα2 (t)  1.11 rad. The task duration of the circular And they are equally applicable to LAF and PSAF. However,
trajectory is Td  20s. Another reference trajectory of the as γ becomes larger, it increases the number of iterations and
clover shape is adopted as followed: the amount of computation of the algorithm. In terms of this
feature, γ should be selected appropriately for the simulative
P d X (t)  k2 sin(3π t/Td ) cos(π t/Td ) + 0.0875 purpose. Therefore, the parameters γ are selected as Table 1
by default in the later simulations.
P dY (t)  k2 sin(3π t/Td ) sin(π t/Td ) From Table 2, we can also obtain that the RMSE of
the position and the orientation employing PSAF is much
smaller compared to LAF. Then the trajectory tracking result
P d Z (t)  0.4362
employing two activation functions is compared without
noise in Fig. 11. Similarly, Fig. 11a illustrates the desired
where k1  0.02 m. Then the desired orientation angle is set
trajectory, the actual trajectory based LAF and the actual
as P dα1 (t)  0 rad, P dα2 (t)  1.11 rad. The task duration of
trajectory based PSAF. It can be seen that the actual trajec-
the circular trajectory is also Td  20s.
tory based PSAF is closer to the desired trajectory than the
The simulation results are shown in Fig. 8. It shows the
actual trajectory based LAF. Figure 11b, d show the tracking

trajectory tracking results of the circular path without noise e p (t) and eo (t)2 with two activation functions respec-
when employing LAF. As we can see, Fig. 8a illustrates the 2
tively. Figure 11c, e illustrate the boxplot of the trajectory
circular trajectory tracking control in the three-dimensional
tracking error with different activation functions of LAF and
space. The changes of the bellows’ length are shown in
PSAF. By comparison, it can be found that PSAF is more
Fig. 8b. Figure 8c illustrates the displacement of the base in
accurate to track the desired trajectory than LAF both in
the trajectory tracking process. The continuum robots bend
terms of position and orientation.
motion, which causes the base’s center of mass to change.
Finally, the robustness of the method after adding different
Figure 8d, e depict the position error and the orientation error
types of noise is verified by some simulations. Robustness
of the continuum arm end-effector respectively. It can be seen
analysis is discussed by comparing the performance of dif-
from Fig. 8d that the position error does not exceed 1 mm.
ferent activation functions under the same disturbance of
In addition, Fig. 8e shows that the orientation error does not
noises. Firstly, Fig. 12 shows the trajectory tracking result
exceed 2 × 10−3 rad, which can be negligible.
with the sinusoidal noise ξ  0.005 sin(5π t/Td ) m employ-
The simulation results are shown in Fig. 9. It shows the
ing LAF and PSAF. From Fig. 12a–e that the PSAF can
trajectory tracking results of the clover path without noise
achieve better robustness performance compared with the
when employing LAF. As we can see, Fig. 9a illustrates the
LAF in the case of the sinusoidal noise. And Fig. 13 illus-
circular trajectory tracking control in the three-dimensional
trates the trajectory tracking result with temporal abrupt noise
space. The changes of the bellows’ length are shown in
ξ  0.04 m employing LAF and PSAF, which is similar in
Fig. 9b. Figure 9c illustrates the displacement of the base in
that the robustness of PSAF is superior. It is obvious that
the trajectory tracking process. The continuum robots bend
the position tracking result is more visible employing PSAF
motion, which causes the base’s center of mass to change.
compared to the orientation because the orientation itself is
Figure 9d, e depict the position error and the orientation error
smaller in magnitude. It shows that the RMSE of the track-
of the continuum arm end-effector respectively. It can be
ing error is smaller employing PSAF for the same noise in
seen from Fig. 9d that the position error does not exceed
Table 3. Therefore, the accuracy and the robustness of trajec-
0.5 mm. In addition, Fig. 9e shows that the orientation error
tory tracking are greatly improved by the modified activation
does not exceed 4 × 10−4 rad, which can be negligible. All
function PSAF.
bellows vary within a reachable range of lengths in different
reference trajectories. Through the above analysis, the fea-
sibility and accuracy of the tracking control method can be
verified.
Here the effect of parameter variations is explored. We
choose different γ values for the simulation including γ  1,

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 Complex & Intelligent Systems

(a) Space trajectory diagram of tracking control.

240 10
q 11 q 12 xb
230 q 13 q 21 8 yb
q 22 q 23 zb

Base position variation (mm)

220
6
Bellow length (mm)

210
4
200
2
190
0
180

170 -2

160 -4
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
Time (s) Time(s)

(b) The lengths of bellows. (c) Base centroid displacement.

10 -3
1.5 2
ex e
1 ey 1.5 e
ez
Orientation error (rad)

0.5 1
Position error (mm)

0 0.5

-0.5 0

-1 -0.5

-1.5 -1

-2 -1.5
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
Time (s) Time (s)
(d) Position error. (e) Orientation error.
Fig. 8 The simulations result of the proposed method for tracking the circular path without noise when employing LAF

123
Complex & Intelligent Systems

(a) Space trajectory diagram of tracking control.

220 2
q 11 q 12 xb
215 1.5
q 13 q 21 yb

Base position variation (mm)

210 q 22 q 23 1 zb
Bellow length (mm)

205 0.5

200 0

195 -0.5

190 -1

185 -1.5

180 -2
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
Time (s) Time(s)

(b) The lengths of bellows. (c) Base centroid displacement.

10 -4
0.5 4

2
Orientation error (rad)

0 0
Position error (mm)

-2

-0.5 -4

-6
ex
-1 -8
ey e
ez e
-10

-1.5 -12
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
Time (s) Time (s)

(d) Position error. (e) Orientation error.

Fig. 9 The simulations result of the proposed method for tracking the clover path without noise when employing LAF

123
 Complex & Intelligent Systems

45 0.12
10 -3
=1 =1
40 4
3 =3 =3
0.1
2 =5 =5
35 2
=10 =10
1
30 0.08 0
||eP(t)|| 2(mm)

||eO(t)|| 2(rad)
25 12 13 14 10 10.5 11
0.06
20

15 0.04

10
0.02
5

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
Time(s) Time(s)

(a) The norm of the position error employing (b) The norm of the orientation error employing
LAF. LAF.
10 -3
2.5 3.5
=1 =1
=3 3 =3
2 =5 =5
=10 =10
2.5
||eP(t)|| 2(mm)

||eO(t)|| 2(rad)

1.5
2

1.5
1

1
0.5
0.5

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
Time(s) Time(s)

(c) The norm of the position error employing (d) The norm of the orientation error employing
PSAF. PSAF.
Fig. 10 The comparison of the tracking error for different parameters when tracking the circular path

Table 2 Position and orientation

RMSE for different parameters Parameter γ 1 3 5 10
when tracking the circular path
Position RMSE/mm LAF 18.4735 1.1464 0.7206 0.3767
PSAF 1.6312 0.9611 0.5402 0.2605
Orientation RMSE/rad LAF 0.0489 0.0011 0.0007 0.0003
PSAF 0.0018 0.0010 0.0006 0.0002

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Complex & Intelligent Systems

(a) Space trajectory diagram of tracking control with two activation functions.
1.6 1.6
LAF LAF
1.4 PSAF 1.4 PSAF

1.2 1.2
||ep(t)|| 2(mm)

||e(t)p|| 2(mm)
1 1

0.8 0.8

0.6 0.6

0.4 0.4

0.2
0.2

0
0
0 5 10 15 20 LAF PSAF
Time(s)
(b) The norm of the position error. (c) The boxplot of tracking position error.
-3
10 10 -4
1.8
LAF 16 LAF
1.6 PSAF PSAF
14
1.4
12
1.2
||eo(t)|| 2(rad)

||e(t)o|| 2(rad)

10
1
8
0.8
6
0.6
4
0.4
2
0.2
0
0
0 5 10 15 20 LAF PSAF
Time(s)

(d) The norm of the orientation error. (e) The boxplot of tracking orientation error.
Fig. 11 The comparison of the path trajectory tracking result without noise employing LAF and PSAF

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 Complex & Intelligent Systems

(a) Space trajectory diagram of tracking control with two activation functions
8
LAF LAF
7 PSAF 7 PSAF

6 6
||ep(t)|| 2(mm)

||e(t)p|| 2(mm)
5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 LAF PSAF
Time(s)
(b) The norm of the position error. (c) The boxplot of tracking position error
10 -3
0.02 20
LAF LAF
PSAF PSAF

0.015 15
||eo(t)|| 2(rad)

||e(t)o|| 2(rad)

0.01 10

5
0.005

0
0
0 5 10 15 20 LAF PSAF
Time(s)
(d) The norm of the orientation error. (e) The boxplot of tracking orientation error.
Fig. 12 The comparison of the path trajectory tracking result with sinusoidal noise employing LAF and PSAF

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Complex & Intelligent Systems

(a) Space trajectory diagram of tracking control with two activation functions
6 6
LAF LAF
PSAF PSAF
5 5

4 4
||ep(t)|| 2(mm)

3 ||e(t)p|| 2(mm) 3

2 2

1
1

0
0
0 5 10 15 20 LAF PSAF
Time(s)

(b) The norm of the position error. (c) The boxplot of tracking position error
10 -3 10 -4
1.8
LAF LAF
1.6 16
PSAF PSAF
1.4 14

1.2 12
||eo(t)|| 2(rad)

||e(t)o|| 2(rad)

1 10

0.8 8

6
0.6
4
0.4
2
0.2
0
0
0 5 10 15 20 LAF PSAF
Time(s)
(d) The norm of the orientation error. (e) The boxplot of tracking orientation error.
Fig. 13 The comparison of the path trajectory tracking result with temporal abrupt noise employing LAF and PSAF

123

Table 3 Position and orientation
RMSE for different noises when Activation function
tracking the circular path
Position RMSE/mm LAF
PSAF
Orientation RMSE/rad LAF
PSAF
Conclusion
In this paper, the robust tracking control method of unknown
model is developed to solve the kinematic control problem
for space in-cabin robots with a pneumatic continuum arm.
By using the zeroing neural network, the robust tracking con-
trol method is proposed, which can estimate the time-varying
Jacobian matrix with the unknown coupling kinematic model
between the continuum arm and the space moving base.
Then the modified activation function PSAF is employed
to improve the tracking accuracy and the robustness of the
controller. In addition, the theoretical analyses of the con-
vergence and the stability are given for the proposed control
approach. Finally, the simulation results are given to verify
the effectiveness of the proposed control method for space
in-cabin robots with a pneumatic continuum arm. Moreover,
PSAF is indicated to be superior to LAF in tracking accuracy
and robustness by comparison. In the future, we will build a
real physical experiment platform to verify the effectiveness
of the method in this paper.
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