Abstract
A control system for a three-link direct-drive robotic manipulator with inherent structural flexibilities is presented. The structural flexibilities introduce undesirable vibration modes which may affect operation of the robot motion controller, resulting in destabilization of the closed-loop system. This represents a major limiting factor for implementation of a conventional controller designed solely for the rigid body dynamics of the robotic manipulator. The fundamental idea in the presented approach is to use a composite controller which consists of a trajectory-tracking section designed for the rigid-body dynamics and a vibration-damping compensator added for attenuation of the dominant flexible dynamics. The vibration damping compensator operates on estimated states of the dominant flexible dynamics obtained from a reduced-order state observer. A mechanism is implemented which allows the robotic manipulator to move through or hold in positions where the dominant flexible dynamics is unobservable and uncontrollable. Results of laboratory tests document that the presented approach leads to improved stability and control performance.
