Real-time Estimator of Actuator Control and Health (REACH) on an Eel-Inspired Soft Robot
arXiv:2608.14865v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: An actuator health estimation algorithm for a soft swimming robot that can perform anguilliform swimming is developed. Due to harsh operational environments of underwater robots, and the common degradation of soft robot materials and actuators, accurate estimation of actuator functionality is necessary for robots to perform their missions as well as return to base in the event of actuator degradation and failure. Termed REACH (Real-time Estimator of Actuator Control and Health), the architecture employs a soft robot model, sigma point filter, and a formal statistical hypothesis test to adequately capture the nonlinearities and changes over time. The performance of REACH using three sensor types (GPS, IMU, and Bend Sensor) with one sensor on each actuator is compared, demonstrating that both bend sensor and IMU are adequate choices. Sensor quantity and placement are evaluated for IMU and bend sensor, showing two sensors are sufficient for IMU, whereas three sensors are needed for bend sensor. Three swimming gaits (linear swimming, wide turning, tight turning) are compared, demonstrating that REACH can successfully predict actuator health for all three gaits, with minimal differences in performance. A filter validation method shows the fault estimation algorithm is statistically consistent in finding the correct degradation. The approach is experimentally evaluated using bend sensor data collected from a fish robot, demonstrating that REACH can successfully estimate actuator health with noisy data and variations in manufacturing.
-->
[Submitted on 14 Aug 2026]
Title:Real-time Estimator of Actuator Control and Health (REACH) on an Eel-Inspired Soft Robot
View a PDF of the paper titled Real-time Estimator of Actuator Control and Health (REACH) on an Eel-Inspired Soft Robot, by Zhangjingyi Jiang and 3 other authors
View PDF HTML (experimental)
Abstract:An actuator health estimation algorithm for a soft swimming robot that can perform anguilliform swimming is developed. Due to harsh operational environments of underwater robots, and the common degradation of soft robot materials and actuators, accurate estimation of actuator functionality is necessary for robots to perform their missions as well as return to base in the event of actuator degradation and failure. Termed REACH (Real-time Estimator of Actuator Control and Health), the architecture employs a soft robot model, sigma point filter, and a formal statistical hypothesis test to adequately capture the nonlinearities and changes over time. The performance of REACH using three sensor types (GPS, IMU, and Bend Sensor) with one sensor on each actuator is compared, demonstrating that both bend sensor and IMU are adequate choices. Sensor quantity and placement are evaluated for IMU and bend sensor, showing two sensors are sufficient for IMU, whereas three sensors are needed for bend sensor. Three swimming gaits (linear swimming, wide turning, tight turning) are compared, demonstrating that REACH can successfully predict actuator health for all three gaits, with minimal differences in performance. A filter validation method shows the fault estimation algorithm is statistically consistent in finding the correct degradation. The approach is experimentally evaluated using bend sensor data collected from a fish robot, demonstrating that REACH can successfully estimate actuator health with noisy data and variations in manufacturing.
Subjects:
Robotics (cs.RO)
Cite as: arXiv:2608.14865 [cs.RO]
(or arXiv:2608.14865v1 [cs.RO] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.14865
arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)
Related DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1109/robosoft63089.2025.11020927
DOI(s) linking to related resources
Submission history
From: Zhangjingyi Jiang [view email] [v1] Fri, 14 Aug 2026 20:06:22 UTC (1,739 KB)
Full-text links:
Access Paper:
View a PDF of the paper titled Real-time Estimator of Actuator Control and Health (REACH) on an Eel-Inspired Soft Robot, by Zhangjingyi Jiang and 3 other authors
View PDF
HTML (experimental)
TeX Source
view license
Current browse context:
cs.RO
new | recent | 2026-08
Change to browse by:
cs
References & Citations
NASA ADS
Google Scholar
Semantic Scholar
Loading...
Data provided by:
Bibliographic Tools
Bibliographic and Citation Tools
Bibliographic Explorer Toggle
Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?)
Connected Papers Toggle
Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?)
Litmaps Toggle
Litmaps (What is Litmaps?)
scite.ai Toggle
scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?)
Code, Data, Media
Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article
alphaXiv Toggle
alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?)
Links to Code Toggle
CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?)
DagsHub Toggle
DagsHub (What is DagsHub?)
GotitPub Toggle
Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?)
Huggingface Toggle
Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?)
ScienceCast Toggle
ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?)
Demos
Demos
Replicate Toggle
Replicate (What is Replicate?)
Spaces Toggle
Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?)
Spaces Toggle
TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?)
Related Papers
Recommenders and Search Tools
Link to Influence Flower
Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?)
Core recommender toggle
CORE Recommender (What is CORE?)
Author
Venue
Institution
Topic
About arXivLabs
arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators
arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.
Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.
Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.
Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)