Observer-based optimal control of flexible Stewart parallel robots

The design and simulation of two optimal control schemes for a parallel flexible link manipulator of the Stewart type is presented. The first control scheme combines a nonlinear rigid model of the flexible manipulator with a linear rigid observer, whereas the second scheme uses a nonlinear flexible manipulator model with a linear flexible observer. The majority of the results available in the literature do not address the optimal control problem through the use of observers, as it is done in this paper, for the control of parallel robots. The simulation results have shown in both cases that indeed optimal state-obscrver-based control is a good candidate for controlling parallel-link manipulators in practice. As expected, the second scheme (flexible model plus flexible observer) gives better results than the first one, achieving faster trajectory tracking. The effects of white noises, applied forces, and zero gravity environment were taken under consideration.