Event-triggered boundary control of a flexible manipulator with uncertain end load

In this study, we consider the event-triggered boundary control problem of a single-link flexible manipulator with uncertain end load. The flexible manipulator is modelled by partial differential equations (PDEs). Based on the PDE model, an event-triggered control strategy is proposed to achieve angular position tracking and vibration elimination, while alleviating the communication burden of the signal transmission between controller and actuator. The relative threshold strategy used in triggering event mechanism can adjust the update interval according to the size of the control input. The designed adaptive law with projection mapping operator can deal with undertain end load. The proposed control scheme can guarantee that all signals in the closed-loop system are uniformly ultimately bounded, and the angular tracking error and vibration converge to small zero neighbourhoods by reasonable selection of design parameters. Moreover, the Zeno phenomenon is precluded. Numerical simulation results elucidate the effectiveness of the designed control strategy.