A robust observer for flexible-link manipulators control

Observers are required to estimate the states which are not directly measured. In this paper, a robust observer is developed for estimating the states of flexible-link manipulators. The observer is used in real-time applications due to its simple structure. The developed observer uses the sliding modes approach to improve the performance of a quasi-linear observer. Simulation results show excellent performance for the observer even with the change of payload. Experimental results for implementing the observer on a 3D manipulator with flexible links are demonstrated