Modeling of Flexible Robot-Payload Systems Through Component Synthesis

Abstract

In this paper, a new modeling method is developed for analyzing the dynamic behavior of a system consisting of a rigid robotic manipulator and a flexible sheet metal payload. The component mode synthesis method is applied to reduce the degrees of freedom of the payload and to model the interfaces between the robot gripper and the payload. Using nonlinear compatibility functions, the method is modified to synthesize the dynamics of the entire robot-payload system. Exact models are developed capable of describing both large and small rigid-body motions. A modular form is derived and the coupling dynamics is formulated in a computationally efficient manner. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the modeling method. [S0022-0434(00)01102-3]