Tip position control of a flexible-link arm

Partial feedback linearization (PFL) control method is applied to a single flexible link arm (FLA) with payload. A feedback linearization based controller is designed to achieve set point positioning control. Flexible robot arms have structural flexibilities and resulting high number of passive degrees-of-freedom. They cannot be decoupled due to the highly nonlinear structure. Since exact feedback linearization control methods cannot be applied to these systems. Partial feedback linearization control methods are suitable for the flexible systems. For set-point control, collocated PFL control is applied to achieve the desired hub unit position and non-collocated PFL control algorithm is applied consecutively using switching action to improve the tip-position precision of a single FLA as demonstrated by simulations. Numerical simulations of a single FLA successfully demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method