Control of a Flexible Laboratory Manipulator Using a Non-linear Lyapunov-type Controller

Flexibility of robot links inevitably causes the elastic deflection and vibration of the endpoint of the robot during high-speed operations. The deflection and vibration will tend to degrade the positioning performance of the robot. In this paper a non-linear Lyapunov-type controller is applied to control the dynamics of a flexible SCARA robot, The Selective Complaint Articulated/Assembly Robot Arm. A mathematical model governing the dynamics of the flexible manipulator is derived using lumped masses and spring model. Control strategy based on the concept of non-linear Lyapunov-type controller is then proposed to damp the tip oscillations and regulate the end point of the flexible robot.