Controller design for a single-link flexible smart materials robot with experimental tests

Abstract

In this paper, controller design is investigated for a single-link flexible smart materials robot, which combines both the advantages of flexible robots and piezoelectric materials. To avoid the drawbacks resulting from model uncertainties and/or model truncations, model-free controllers (both decentralized and centralized) are proposed for tip regulation and residual vibration suppression. In contrast to traditional model-based methods, the controllers presented here are derived from the basic energy-work relationship and are independent of the system dynamics.