A machine learning-based probabilistic computational framework for uncertainty quantification of actuation of clustered tensegrity structures

Yipeng Ge; Zigang He; Shaofan Li; Liang Zhang; Litao Shi

doi:10.1007/s00466-023-02284-0

A machine learning-based probabilistic computational framework for uncertainty quantification of actuation of clustered tensegrity structures

Comput Mech. 2023 Mar 5:1-20. doi: 10.1007/s00466-023-02284-0. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yipeng Ge¹, Zigang He¹, Shaofan Li², Liang Zhang¹, Litao Shi^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ College of Aerospace Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044 People's Republic of China.
² Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 74720 USA.
³ Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, Shanghai, 201100 People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Clustered tensegrity structures integrated with continuous cables are lightweight, foldable, and deployable. Thus, they can be used as flexible manipulators or soft robots. The actuation process of such soft structure has high probabilistic sensitivity. It is essential to quantify the uncertainty of actuated responses of the tensegrity structures and to modulate their deformation accurately. In this work, we propose a comprehensive data-driven computational approach to study the uncertainty quantification (UQ) and probability propagation in clustered tensegrity structures, and we have developed a surrogate optimization model to control the flexible structure deformation. An example of clustered tensegrity beam subjected to a clustered actuation is presented to demonstrate the validity of the approach and its potential application. The three main novelties of the data-driven framework are: (1) The proposed model can avoid the difficulty of convergence in nonlinear Finite Element Analysis (FEA), by two machine learning methods, the Gauss Process Regression (GPR) and Neutral Network (NN). (2) A fast real-time prediction on uncertainty propagation can be achieved by the surrogate model, and (3) Optimization of the actuated deformation comes true by using both Sequence Quadratic Programming (SQP) and Bayesian optimization methods. The results have shown that the proposed data-driven computational approach is powerful and can be extended to other UQ models or alternative optimization objectives.

Keywords: Bayesian optimization; Clustered tensegrity structure; Machine learning; Optimization inverse problem; Uncertainty quantification and propagation.

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