MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL OF AN UNDERDAMPED PNEUMATICALLY ACTUATED SOFT ROBOT WITH FLEXIBLE LINKS FOR UNMODELED ENVIRONMENTS SOFT MACHINES ARE OFTEN PERCEIVED AS LESS CAPABLE WHEN COMPARED TO TRADITIONAL RIGID ROBOTS. HOWEVER OUR PROPOSED WORK WILL SHOW THAT WE CAN HAVE COMPLIANT UNDERACTUATED SYSTEMS THAT ARE ROBUST WHEN OPERATING IN UNCERTAIN CONDITIONS WHILE STILL HAVING PRECISE HIGH PERFORMANCE CONTROL FOR MANIPULATION AND MOBILITY. IN ORDER TO DRAMATICALLY IMPROVE CONTROL FOR SOFT ROBOTS WE WILL USE OPTIMAL CONTROL METHODS SUCH AS MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL (MPC). THESE METHODS WILL INITIALLY BE DEVELOPED ON A 14 DEGREE OF FREEDOM PNEUMATICALLY ACTUATED FABRIC-BASED LIGHT-WEIGHT MECHANICALLY ROBUST ROBOT TORSO AND ARMS DEVELOPED BY OTHERLAB (PNEUBOTICS). THIS PLATFORM WAS ORIGINALLY DEVELOPED FOR THE DARPA MAXIMUM MOBILITY AND MANIPULATION PROGRAM AND WILL ARRIVE AT BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY INDEPENDENT OF THIS PROPOSAL BY EARLY 2014. THIS SYSTEM IS UNDERACTUATED AND UNDERDAMPED AND ADVANCES IN CONTROL FOR THIS PLATFORM SHOULD TRANSLATE WELL TO SYSTEMS WITH SIMILAR DYNAMICS. FURTHERMORE THE ROBUSTNESS OF THIS PLATFORM TO IMPACT AND UNMODELED COLLISIONS WILL ENABLE US AS PART OF OUR PROPOSED RESEARCH TO DEVELOP CONTROLLERS FOR COLLABORATIVELY WORKING WITH OTHER SOFT ROBOTS OR PEOPLE IN HARSH ENVIRONMENTS SUCH AS SPACE. THE PLATFORM ON WHICH WE ARE DEVELOPING OUR ALGORITHMS IS LIGHT-WEIGHT RELATIVELY INEXPENSIVE AND CAN BE COMPACTLY STORED FOR TRANSPORTATION. THE RESULT OF OUR PROPOSED WORK WILL BE A SET OF CONTROL ALGORITHMS THAT WILL IMPROVE THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE AND RELEVANCE OF SOFT ROBOTS FOR FUTURE NASA MISSIONS. THE MAIN FOCUS OF OUR PROPOSAL CAN BE DESCRIBED AS: DEVELOP OPTIMAL CONTROL METHODS FOR UNDERDAMPED UNDERACTUATED SOFT ROBOTS THAT ALLOW FAST AND PRECISE MOTION DESPITE THE DIFFICULT NATURAL DYNAMICS OF THE SYSTEM. APPLY THESE CONTROL METHODS TO ACHIEVE UNPRECEDENTED PERFORMANCE IN REAL AND UNMODELED ENVIRONMENTS FOR SOFT ROBOT MANIPULATION AND LOCOMOTION. TEST THE CONTROLLERS WE DEVELOP IN REALISTIC AND USEFUL SCENARIOS (SUCH AS EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE OR INSTALLATION OR EXPLORATION OF RUGGED TERRAIN) THAT WILL HAVE WIDE APPLICABILITY TO FUTURE SPACE MISSIONS AS WELL AS OTHER CROSSCUTTING DOMAINS SUCH AS NATURAL DISASTER RELIEF OR SEARCH AND RESCUE MISSIONS. INITIAL TESTS FOR THE FIRST TWO YEARS WILL FOCUS ON ROBOT MANIPULATION AND WILL INCLUDE 1) GRASPING UNKNOWN OBJECTS USING A LOW-DEGREEOF- FREEDOM COMPLIANT HAND AND 2) MANIPULATING UNMODELED COMPLIANT MATERIALS. TESTS IN THE THIRD YEAR WILL FOCUS ON APPLYING OUR NEW LOW-LEVEL SOFT ROBOT CONTROLLERS TO 1) PERFORM LOCOMOTION OVER ROUGH TERRAIN WITH A SOFT ROBOT QUADRUPED PLATFORM AND 2) PERFORM TASKS THAT REQUIRE MANIPULATION AND LOCOMOTION SIMULTANEOUSLY. OUR INITIAL APPROACH FOR CONTROL WHICH IS CALLED MPC USES AN EXPLICIT MODEL OF THE UNDERDAMPED AND UNDERACTUATED DYNAMICS AND SHOULD ALLOW FOR SMOOTH CONTROLLED MOTION WHILE ALSO FACILITATING THE ABILITY TO LEVERAGE THE UNDERDAMPED NATURE OF THE SYSTEM. THESE EXPECTATIONS COME FROM RESULTS OF OUR PRIOR WORK WITH MPC. OUR PROPOSED WORK WILL SIGNIFICANTLY EXTEND RESEARCH WHERE WE HAD DEVELOPED CONTROLLERS FOR RIGID ROBOTS WITH COMPLIANCE AT THE JOINTS AND TACTILE SENSING (SEE HTTP://YOUTU.BE/T8SZ-CO1ORE AND HTTP:// YOUTU.BE/OTPWNZ2GPPG). MPC ALSO ALLOWS THE DEFINITION OF HARD CONSTRAINTS SUCH AS ACTUATOR OR JOINT LIMITS. THIS MEANS THAT IN ADDITION TO THE NATURAL ROBUSTNESS OF SOFT ROBOTS TO UNMODELED CONTACT WE CAN ALSO EXPLICITLY DEFINE ADDITIONAL CONSTRAINTS FOR OUR ROBOT SUCH AS PROXIMITY TO PEOPLE OR MAXIMUM CONTACT FORCE. THE ABILITY TO MOVE QUICKLY WHILE COMPENSATING FOR OSCILLATION AND RESPECTING IMPORTANT CONSTRAINTS WILL BE A FOUNDATIONAL CAPABILITY FOR MANIPULATION AND MOBILITY WITH SOFT ROBOTS.