EXPERIMENTS IN CONTROL OF A FLEXIBLE-LINK ROBOTIC MANIPULATOR WITH UNKNOWN PAYLOAD DYNAMICS - AN ADAPTIVE APPROACH

This article presents technology that extends the concept of end-point control of a flexible-link robot aim to handle payloads with unknown internal dynamics. The approach is based on merging high-performance control with an innovative identification algorithm in a self-tuning regulator framework. Payload dynamics are identified in real time using recently developed subspace fitting techniques. Sufficient excitation issues are addressed. End-point feedback controllers are formulated using frequency-weighted lineal quadratic gaussian design methods. Experimental results demonstrating precision control of a very flexible single-link robot arm with unknown dynamic payloads are presented.