An infinite-dimensional analysis of a PD-controlled single flexible link in collision

There is increasing interest in examining the use of flexible link manipulators in tasks where there is contact with the environment. Presently, there has been limited work examining the stability of force control strategies for such manipulators, especially in the case where there is a switching transition between the unconstrained and constrained environments. In the paper, the stability of a single flexible link under PD control contacting an environment is studied. The problems associated with finite-dimensional approximations are outlined and an infinite-dimensional proof of asymptotic stability is described