Dataset
2,000 traces
Problem
What the build needed to solve
My contribution
Built the generative model, actuator-identity split, health-indicator and recalibration evaluation, audit checks, figures, and manuscript/release package.
Soft pneumatic grippers age, while pressure-only pose estimators drift with compliance. A useful health indicator must generalize across actuators and must be audited against a simple clock baseline and an explicit temporal-lead definition.
Constraints
Design boundaries
Split train and test data by actuator identity rather than by trace.
Keep every claim simulation-only until matched hardware evidence exists.
Report negative or threshold-dependent findings without moving the selection rule.
Make manuscript numbers machine-checkable against committed JSON results.
Build log
Design evolution
Iterations, issues, and fixes documented as a compact notebook timeline.
Revision
Failure mode
Design change
Result
Mechanism model
A plausible shared-manifold effect could be asserted without separating it from global fatigue drift.
Built isolated-versus-shared supply simulations and actuator-level held-out splits.
Cross-talk exists but is second-order at the registered parameters.
Lead-time audit
The selected trigger met the error budget but did not provide warning before violation.
Reported a threshold frontier instead of relabeling the deployed threshold.
Median lead is -0.123 normalized life at the deployed threshold; lower thresholds can buy lead at a recalibration cost.
Citable package
arXiv endorsement is an external dependency.
Frozen v1.3 bytes, citation metadata, and an August 2 Zenodo fallback.
The application packet no longer depends on an inbox response.
Testing
Results
Held-out correlation
r = 0.885
95% CI
0.835–0.958
Trigger recalibrations
2 vs 5
Deployed median lead
-0.123 life
Evidence
Simulation-only
The full suite validates the pneumatic plant, fatigue model, health features, shared-manifold network, actuator-level evaluation, and manuscript-number traceability.
The strongest evidence is not a perfect positive result: the registered trigger saves recalibrations but provides no positive warning time at the deployed threshold.
Scope note: All actuators are generated by one simulation family. No physical fatigue, P-V, or proprioception validation is claimed.
Reflection
Engineering lessons
- A health indicator and a leading indicator are different claims.
- Actuator-identity splits are essential when traces from one specimen are correlated.
- A simple cycle-count baseline can expose whether sensing adds operational value.
Gallery
CAD, fabrication, and test views
Preliminary Simulation
Held-out health-indicator relationship and threshold-dependent lead-time result
Simulation result
Held-out recalibration trade-off: the triggered policy reaches near always-on pose error (~0.06 mm) at ~2 recalibrations, versus 5 for always-on (simulation, held-out actuators).
Links