Position and force tracking of a two-manipulator system manipulating a flexible beam payload

This paper discusses the issue of hybrid position and force control of a two-manipulator system manipulating a flexible beam in trajectory tracking. Unlike our previous approach of set-point position control [6][4], in the trajectory tracking, the system coordinates are hard to be regulated to the desired states with non-zero tracking velocities under continuous feedback control. In this study, we design a hybrid position and force tracking controller while using saturation control to compensate the effect of beam vibration dynamics to the tracking performance. All parameters and states used in the controller are readily available so that the proposed method is feasible in implementation. Under the proposed controller, the tracking error asymptotically converges to a predetermined boundary. Simulation results demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach.