Control of a flexible bracing manipulator: Integration of current research work to realize the bracing manipulator

All research results about flexible manipulator control were integrated to show a control scenario of a bracing manipulator. First, dynamic analysis of a flexible manipulator was done for modeling. Second, from the dynamic model, the inverse dynamic equation was derived, and the time domain inverse dynamic method was proposed for the calculation of the feedforward torque and the desired flexible coordinate trajectories. Third, a tracking controller was designed by combining the inverse dynamic feedforward control with the joint feedback control. The control scheme was applied to the tip position control of a single link flexible manipulator for zero and non-zero initial condition cases. Finally, the contact control scheme was added to the position tracking control. A control scenario of a bracing manipulator is provided and evaluated through simulation and experiment on a single link flexible manipulator

Experimental investigations of the effects of cutting angle on chattering of a flexible manipulator

When a machine tool is mounted at the tip of a robotic manipulator, the manipulator becomes more flexible (the natural frequencies are lowered). Moreover, for a given flexible manipulator, its compliance will be different depending on feedback gains, configurations, and direction of interest. Here, the compliance of a manipulator is derived analytically, and its magnitude is represented as a compliance ellipsoid. Then, using a two-link flexible manipulator with an abrasive cut off saw, the experimental investigation shows that the chattering varies with the saw cutting angle due to different compliance. The main work is devoted to finding a desirable cutting angle which reduces the chattering

Dynamic simulation of task constrained of a rigid-flexible manipulator

A rigid-flexible manipulator may be assigned tasks in a moving environment where the winds or vibrations affect the position and/or orientation of surface of operation. Consequently, losses of the contact and perhaps degradation of the performance may occur as references are changed. When the environment is moving, knowledge of the angle α between the contact surface and the horizontal is required at every instant. In this paper, different profiles for the time varying angle α are proposed to investigate the effect of this change into the contact force and the joint torques of a rigid-flexible manipulator. The coefficients of the equation of the proposed rotating surface are changing with time to determine the new X and Y coordinates of the moving surface as the surface rotates

Large planar maneuvers for articulated flexible manipulators

An articulated flexible manipulator carried on a translational cart is maneuvered by an active controller to perform certain position control tasks. The nonlinear dynamics of the articulated flexible manipulator are derived and a transformation matrix is formulated to localize the nonlinearities within the inertia matrix. Then a feedback linearization scheme is introduced to linearize the dynamic equations for controller design. Through a pole placement technique, a robust controller design is obtained by properly assigning a set of closed-loop desired eigenvalues to meet performance requirements. Numerical simulations for the articulated flexible manipulators are given to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed position control algorithms

Flexible manipulator control experiments and analysis

Modeling and control design for flexible manipulators, both from an experimental and analytical viewpoint, are described. From the application perspective, an ongoing effort within the laboratory environment at the Ohio State University, where experimentation on a single link flexible arm is underway is described. Several unique features of this study are described here. First, the manipulator arm is slewed by a direct drive dc motor and has a rigid counterbalance appendage. Current experimentation is from two viewpoints: (1) rigid body slewing and vibration control via actuation with the hub motor, and (2) vibration suppression through the use of structure-mounted proof-mass actuation at the tip. Such an application to manipulator control is of interest particularly in design of space-based telerobotic control systems, but has received little attention to date. From an analytical viewpoint, parameter estimation techniques within the closed-loop for self-tuning adaptive control approaches are discussed. Also introduced is a control approach based on output feedback and frequency weighting to counteract effects of spillover in reduced-order model design. A model of the flexible manipulator based on experimental measurements is evaluated for such estimation and control approaches

Intelligent modelling and active vibration control of flexible manipulator system

Unwanted vibration of flexible manipulator results in unsatisfactory performance of any dynamic system using the flexile manipulator. This paper presents a robust control strategy in order to suppress undesirable vibration due to flexible manipulator maneuver. First, the appropriate model of the flexible manipulator is extracted by applying the control-model identification technique for linear and nonlinear model, namely, autoregressive with exogenous input (ARX) model and nonlinear ARX (NARX) respectively. The linear model is estimated by recursive least square method (RLS) and nonlinear model identified by artificial neural network (NN). Finally, the PID controller is designed for each proposed model to cancel the vibration of the flexible manipulator. The robustness of the controller is evaluated by imposing new disturbances into the linear and nonlinear systems. System identification and controller design is conducted by numerical and simulation approaches. The results from simulation indicate that performance of PID controller using linear model is satisfactory compared to nonlinear model

Distributed importance-based fuzzy logic controllers for flexible link manipulators

This research studies the design and tuning of the distributed importance-based fuzzy logic controllers (FLCs) for two dynamic systems: a single-link flexible manipulator and a two-link rigid-flexible manipulator. The importance analysis algorithm is introduced in the structure design of a FLC. The fuzzy rules for the former system are written based on observing the system behaviors. The fuzzy rules for the latter are selected to mimic the performance of the comparable linear controllers. A Modified Nelder and Mead Simplex Algorithm is used to tune the parameters of the membership functions in the distributed importance-based FLC. The tuned distributed importance-based FLC for the single-link flexible manipulator is compared with a linear quadratic regulator and the tuned distributed PD-like FLC. Similarly, the tuned distributed importance-based FLC for the two-link rigid-flexible manipulator is compared with the tuned importance-based linear controller and the tuned distributed PD-like FLC. The robustness of each tuned controller is tested under different conditions

Hybrid iterative learning control of a flexible manipulator

This paper presents an investigation into the development of a hybrid control scheme with iterative learning for input tracking and end-point vibration suppression of a flexible manipulator system. The dynamic model of the system is derived using the finite element method. Initially, a collocated proportional-derivative (PD) controller using hub angle and hub velocity feedback is developed for control of rigid-body motion of the system. This is then extended to incorporate a non-collocated proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller with iterative learning for control of vibration of the system. Simulation results of the response of the manipulator with the controllers are presented in the time and frequency domains. The performance of the hybrid iterative learning control scheme is assessed in terms of input tracking and level of vibration reduction in comparison to a conventionally designed PD-PID control scheme. The effectiveness of the control scheme in handling various payloads is also studied

Tip position control of single flexible manipulators based on LQR with the Mamdani model

Flexible manipulators have been actively used in various fields, such as aerospace, industry and medical treatment. It remains that the tip of the flexible manipulator should accurately trail the target trajectory without vibration. This paper proposes a novel method of the tip position control of a single flexible manipulator based on LQR with the Mamdani model. Firstly, using the assumed mode method and the Lagrange equations, the dynamic model of the single flexible manipulator is established. Then, the state equations are derived by the dynamic model. Based on the Mamdani model, the fuzzy algorithm is added to the traditional LQR control, and the self-adaptive adjustment of the LQR control variable R is conducted, which improves the adaptability of the control system. Finally, numerical simulations and experiments are presented. The results demonstrate that the novel control method presented in this paper can rapidly achieve the location in the position control and effectively suppress the elastic vibration of the single flexible manipulator, which has more considerable effect compared with the traditional LQR control method