Modeling and control of a rotating flexible beam on a translated base

The flexible beam slewing control problem is investigated for the situation when the base of the beam is allowed to both rotate and translate in a plane. A nonlinear model is obtained by using Hamilton´s principle. By assuming a massive base, a simple proportional-derivative type control law is obtained. In the linearized form, measurements of the integral of the bending displacement and velocity over the length of the beam are required, but the only model information needed is the beam length. Simulation has shown a significant improvement in performance over the torque feedback alone. A laboratory experiment where a flexible beam is mounted at the wrist of a Cartesian robot arm has also been performed to validate this approach experimentally. Preliminary results have shown effective vibration suppression capability by using translation alone