Control and stabilization of a flexible robot arm

Abstract

It is shown that a flexible robot arm performing a slewing manoeuvre can be controlled exactly within finite energy states by applying moments at the rotating cylinder the beam is attached to, and shearing forces at the free end of the structure. Furthermore, the use of implementable mechanical damping devices, applied to the base and to the free end of the robot arm, shows that uniform exponential stability holds. A Liapunov function is constructed