2. Modeling for real time simulation of soft robots

To solve the kinematics of a soft robot, one need to describe the continuum deformation of its structure. In this work, we use a numerical representation of the robot with the finite element method (FEM). For a deep presentation of FEM the reader may refer to .

The simulation of a deformable object involves to describe its internal response to external forces. Let us start with the formulation given by the second law of Newton, that models the dynamic behavior of a body as: