The intrinsic nonlinearities of soft robots present significant control but simultaneously provide them with rich computational potential. Reservoir computing (RC) has shown effectiveness in online learning systems for controlling nonlinear systems such as soft actuators. Conventional RC can be extended into physical reservoir computing (PRC) by leveraging the nonlinear dynamics of soft actuators for computation. This paper introduces a PRC-based online learning framework to control the motion of a pneumatic soft bending actuator, utilizing another pneumatic soft actuator as the PRC model. Unlike conventional designs requiring two RC models, the proposed control system employs a more compact architecture with a single RC model. Additionally, the framework enables zero-shot online learning, addressing limitations of previous PRC-based control systems reliant on offline training. Simulations and experiments validated the performance of the proposed system. Experimental results indicate that the PRC model achieved superior control performance compared to a linear model, reducing the root-mean-square error (RMSE) by an average of over 37% in bending motion control tasks. The proposed PRC-based online learning control framework provides a novel approach for harnessing physical systems' inherent nonlinearities to enhance the control of soft actuators.

The nonlinearities of soft robots bring control challenges like hysteresis but also provide them with computational capacities. This paper introduces a fuzzy pneumatic physical reservoir computing (FPRC) model for feedforward hysteresis compensation in motion tracking control of soft actuators. Our method utilizes a pneumatic bending actuator as a physical reservoir with nonlinear computing capacities to control another pneumatic bending actuator. The FPRC model employs a Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model to process outputs from the physical reservoir. In comparative evaluations, the FPRC model shows equivalent training performance to an Echo State Network (ESN) model, whereas it exhibits better test accuracies with significantly reduced execution time. Experiments validate the proposed FPRC model's effectiveness in controlling the bending motion of the pneumatic soft actuator with open and closed-loop control systems. The proposed FPRC model's robustness against environmental disturbances has also been experimentally verified. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first implementation of a physical system in the feedforward hysteresis compensation model for controlling soft actuators. This study is expected to advance physical reservoir computing in nonlinear control applications and extend the feedforward hysteresis compensation methods for controlling soft actuators.

This study demonstrates that the soft biological tissues of humans can be used as a type of soft body in physical reservoir computing. Soft biological tissues possess characteristics such as stress-strain nonlinearity and viscoelasticity that satisfy the requirements for physical reservoir computing, including nonlinearity and memory. The aim of this study was to utilize the dynamics of human soft tissues as a physical reservoir for the emulation of nonlinear dynamical systems. To demonstrate this concept, joint angle data during motion in the flexion-extension direction of the wrist joint, and ultrasound images of the muscles associated with that motion, were acquired from human participants. The input to the system was the angle of the wrist joint, while the deformation field within the muscle (obtained from ultrasound images) represented the state of the reservoir. The results indicate that the dynamics of soft tissue have a positive impact on the computational task of emulating nonlinear dynamical systems. This research suggests that the soft tissue of humans can be used as a potential computational resource.