Modeling and control of a horizontal two-link rigid/flexible robot

This paper proposes a trajectory control scheme for a horizontal two-link rigid/flexible robot having a payload at the free end. First, a new distributed-parameter dynamic model, consisting of two ordinary differential equations and one partial differential equation, is derived using the extended Hamilton's principle, and then a trajectory-tracking control scheme is designed based on the distributed-parameter dynamic model, where the Lyapunov stability theorem is used as a mathematical tool. The proposed control is a collocated control, free from the so-called spillover instability. The proposed control consists of a PD control for the rigid dynamics, a proportional control for the flexible dynamics, and feed forward and dynamics compensation. With only two joint actuators, the proposed trajectory control guarantees stability throughout the entire trajectory-tracking control and asymptotic stability at desired goal positions. The theoretical results have been evaluated with control experiments.