Manipulation surfaces control objects by actively deforming their shape rather than directly grasping them. While dense actuator arrays can generate complex deformations, they also introduce high degrees of freedom (DOF), increasing system complexity and limiting scalability. The MANTA-RAY (Manipulation with Adaptive Non-rigid Textile Actuation with Reduced Actuation densitY) platform addresses these challenges by leveraging a soft, fabric-based surface with reduced actuator density to manipulate fragile and heterogeneous objects. Previous studies focused on single-module implementations supported by four actuators, whereas the feasibility and benefits of a scalable, multi-module configuration remain unexplored. In this work, we present a distributed, modular, and scalable variant of the MANTA-RAY platform that maintains manipulation performance with a reduced actuator density. The proposed multi-module MANTA-RAY platform and control strategy employs object passing between modules and a geometric transformation driven PID controller that directly maps tilt-angle control outputs to actuator commands, eliminating the need for extensive data-driven or black-box training. We evaluate system performance in simulation across surface configurations of varying modules (3x3 and 4x4) and validate its feasibility through experiments on a physical 2x2 hardware prototype. The system successfully manipulates objects with diverse geometries, masses, and textures including fragile items such as eggs and apples as well as enabling parallel manipulation. The results demonstrate that the multi-module MANTA-RAY improves scalability and enables coordinated manipulation of multiple objects across larger areas, highlighting its potential for practical, real-world applications.

翻译：操作表面通过主动变形其形状而非直接抓取来控制物体。虽然致密的执行器阵列能够产生复杂变形，但也引入了高自由度（DOF），增加了系统复杂性并限制了可扩展性。MANTA-RAY（通过降低致动密度的自适应非刚性织物驱动进行操作）平台通过利用一种执行器密度降低的柔性织物基表面来操作易碎及异质物体，从而应对这些挑战。先前研究集中于由四个执行器支撑的单模块实现，而可扩展的多模块配置的可行性与优势尚未得到探索。在本工作中，我们提出了一种分布式、模块化且可扩展的MANTA-RAY平台变体，该平台在降低执行器密度的同时保持了操作性能。所提出的多模块MANTA-RAY平台及控制策略采用了模块间的物体传递，以及一种将倾斜角控制输出直接映射为执行器指令的几何变换驱动PID控制器，从而无需大量数据驱动或黑箱训练。我们在仿真中评估了系统在不同模块数量（3x3和4x4）的表面配置下的性能，并通过在物理2x2硬件原型上的实验验证了其可行性。该系统成功操作了具有不同几何形状、质量和纹理的物体，包括鸡蛋和苹果等易碎物品，并实现了并行操作。结果表明，多模块MANTA-RAY提高了可扩展性，并能在更大区域内协调操作多个物体，凸显了其在实际应用中的潜力。