High Speed, Precision Motion Strategies for Lightweight Structures

The efficiency and positional accuracy of a lightweight flexible manipulator are limited by its flexural vibrations, which last after a gross motion is completed. The vibration delays subsequent operations. In the proposed work, the vibration is suppressed by inertial force of a small arm in addition to the joint actuators and passive damping treatment. The proposed approach is: 1) Dynamic modeling of a combined system, a large flexible manipulator and a small arm, 2) Determination of optimal sensor location and controller algorithm, and 3) Verification of the fitness of model and the performance of controller.