Noncollocated passive control of a flexible link manipulator

This paper examines the use of noncollocated passivity-based control on a 5-bar-linkage manipulator with the last link flexible. By defining appropriate output variables such that the resulting transfer functions are passive, very simple low-order controllers can be designed. Previous work on this robot allowed only horizontal vibrations in the last link to take place, thus simplifying the problem. In this paper, the last link can have transverse vibrations in two dimensions. Gravitational effects must also be considered. Experimental and simulation results are shown which demonstrate the feasibility of this approach