Experimental Verification of a Large Flexible Manipulator

A large experimental lightweight manipulator would be useful for material handling for welding or for ultrasonic inspection of a large structure such as an airframe. The flexible parallel link mechanism is designed for high rigidity without increasing weight. This constrained system is analyzed by singular value decomposition of the constraint Jacobian matrix. This paper presents a verfication of the modeling using the assumed mode method. Eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the linearized model are compared to the measured system natural frequencies and their associated mode shapes. The modeling results for large motions are compared to the time response data from the experiments. The hydraulic actuator are also verified.