Tracking control of flexible robot arms with a nonlinear observer (Q5926267)

This paper is concerned with the tracking control problem for flexible robot arms. Typically, a flexible robot arm will have fewer inputs than degrees of freedom. Consequently, a desired trajectory for the flexible coordinates must be computed online in real time. The author proves that his control scheme leads to bounded trajectories. To achieve a desirable damping of the system, the equations used for the desired trajectory of the link coordinates are modified. A nonlinear observer is introduced to avoid assuming that measurements of link deflection rates are possible. The author notes that a drawback to his approach is that the effective region of attraction for the (Euler-Lagrange) equations of motion may become very small. The proposed controller-observer scheme is tested experimentally with a two-link robot having a very flexible arm. The author's damping approach appears to improve the overall system performance although it has only a moderate effect on the link coordinates themselves.