A new design methodology for passivity-based control of single- link flexible manipulators

This work presents a new methodology for the design of passivity-based controls as applied to single-link flexible arms. The objective is the end-point position control with effective vibration suppression. The control scheme consists of two nested control loops (named inner and outer loop) and a linear strain feedback to decouple the motor and the link dynamics. The controller design is based on the passivity relationship existing between the integral of the torque measured at the base of the arm (coupling torque) and the motor angle. The inner loop controls the motor position and the outer loop keeps the stability of the overall system to large changes in the robot payload and cancels the residual vibration. The control scheme design is validated both in simulation as well as in experiments.